The C2D Debt Reduction and Development Contract was born out of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, launched at the proposal of France in 1996. In order to extend this dynamic beyond the completion point, France decided in 1999 to create Debt Reduction and Development Contracts. These contracts set by mutual agreement an amount of debt to be repaid by the beneficiary country to France. Each repayment is then returned directly to the country in the form of grants that can be mobilized to improve the living conditions of its populations. C2Ds are therefore team efforts - creditor and debtor - in their fight against poverty.