The World Bank and IMF's debt relief framework, the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative is increasingly criticised for not providing sufficient debt relief to enable low-income countries to achieve debt sustainability. This paper from Cafod, posted on the web page of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network, argues that the key weaknesses of the HIPC Initiative stem from its use of an inappropriate analytical criterion when making debt sustainability analyses. The paper, therefore, proposes an alternative approach more suited to countries that are highly vulnerable to economic shocks and beset by widespread and deeply entrenched levels of poverty.