A/RES/54/202 Page 5 of pronouncements on debt forgiveness in order that countries eligible under the Initiative may quickly benefit from such pronouncements; 15. Notes that the multilateral debt-relief funds can have a positive impact in respect of assisting Governments in safeguarding or increasing expenditures on priority social sectors, and encourages donors to continue efforts in this regard in the context of the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative; 16. Stresses the principle that funding of any debt relief should not affect adversely the support for other development activities in favour of developing countries, including the level of funding for the United Nations funds and programmes, and in this regard welcomes the decision of the Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries (Development Committee) that financing of debt relief should not compromise the financing made available through concessional windows such as the International Development Association, and expresses its appreciation that certain developed countries have reached or even gone beyond the agreed target for official development assistance of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product, while at the same time calling upon other developed countries to fulfil this target for official development assistance as soon as possible; 17. Expresses its appreciation for the action taken by creditor countries of the Paris Club in December 1998 with regard to the debts of countries affected by hurricane Mitch, and in this regard reiterates the need for relief promises to come to fruition within the shortest possible time-frames in order to free the requisite resources for national reconstruction efforts, welcomes the decision of various countries to address the debt situation of Honduras and Nicaragua, including through cancellation of their bilateral official debt, and invites others to take similar action; 18. Encourages the international creditor community to consider appropriate measures in the case of countries with a very high level of debt overhang, including in particular low-income African countries, in order to make an appropriate and consistent contribution to the common objective of debt sustainability; 19. Recognizes the difficulties of highly indebted middle-income developing countries and other highly indebted middle-income countries in meeting their external debt and debt-servicing obligations, and notes the worsening situation in some of them in the context, inter alia, of higher liquidity constraints, which may require debt treatment including, as appropriate, debt-reduction measures; 20. Calls for concerted national and international action to address effectively debt problems of middle-income developing countries with a view to resolving their potential long-term debt-sustainability problems through various debt-treatment measures, including, as appropriate, orderly mechanisms for debt reduction, and encourages all creditor and debtor countries to utilize to the fullest extent possible, where appropriate, all existing mechanisms for debt reduction; 21. Recognizes the efforts made by indebted developing countries with regard to fulfilling their debtservicing commitments despite the high social cost incurred, and in this regard encourages private creditors and, in particular, commercial banks to continue their initiatives and efforts to address the commercial debt problems of middle-income developing countries, in particular those affected by the financial crisis; 22. Also recognizes the need to continue to work with all creditors in order to facilitate continued access to international capital markets, and, in the event that extraordinary circumstances preclude a country from temporarily meeting its debt-servicing commitments, urges Governments to work with creditors in a transparent and timely fashion towards a workable resolution of the repayment problem; /...