In 1998 seventy thousand people formed a human chain around the G8 Summit in Birmingham, UK, demanding an end to Third World debt and rocketing the issue to the top of the G8’s agenda. As the leaders of the G8 group of rich countries prepares to meet in Evian, France at the beginning of June, this report from Jubilee Research, Cafod and the Jubilee Debt Campaign examines in detail the progress that has occurred to date – to the benefit of millions of impoverished people – but also delineates the immense progress that remains to be achieved. The report notes that only eight countries have so far received substantial debt write-off under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. HIPC was failing to restore countries to debt ‘sustainability’ even according to its own, narrow criteria – 19 of the 26 countries currently in receipt of assistance will not have ‘sustainable’ debts even after completing their passage through HIPC, says the report.