What External Debt Cancellation Could Deliver, 2020-2026

For 121 low-, lower-middle-, and upper-middle-income countries, this tool shows what the recovery of revenue lost to external debt servicing could deliver across health, education, basic services, and social protection - year by year, country by country.

Estimates apply published elasticities to the additional government revenue freed if external debt service obligations were fully cancelled. Outcomes are reported either as flows (deaths averted, additional child school years - which can be summed across years) or as stocks (population coverage in a given year - the same person counted only once). The "% of those without" indicators show the share of the unmet need in each country addressed by 2026; a value of 100% means the additional revenue is large enough to close the entire remaining gap, not that the figure has been capped. Time frame selects a single year, or "Total impact 2020-2026" for the full window. Tap any bar in the chart - or any country in the table - to see that country's full profile. When "All regions" and "All income groups" are selected (the default view), the bar chart shows the top 30 countries by the selected outcome to keep the chart readable; selecting an income group or region shows all matching countries in full. Mobile screens always cap at 30. Complete data for every country is always available in the sortable table below. Country profiles support direct linking (the URL updates with ?country=Name as you select), a "Copy link" button for sharing, and a "Save as PDF" button that prints a clean one-page country brief covering all four outcome groups.