Since 1993, public concern about the problem of the growing multilateral debt overhang of poor countries has increased. While the IMF and the World Bank have proposed a special debt initiative for the heavily-indebted poor countries, Percy Mistry argues that a different approach is needed. He suggests compelling arguments for a new strategy to resolve the multilateral debt problem of poor countries in Africa (and elsewhere) and spells out a set of alternative principles and measures on which a new strategy should be based.