02 domestic capitalist class the government including Mozambique, on condition that sold larger enterprises to foreign investors, these countries introduce further policy and smaller enterprises to politically reforms. In 2005 a growing global justice connected aspiring entrepreneurs (Castel- movement, campaigned for an end to Branco & Cramer, 2003). However, due to debt and the world’s richest countries the lack of state support almost half of the announced that they would pay the debt newly privatised enterprises went bankrupt owed by the 18 HIPC countries to the IMF within five years, resulting in the loss of and World Bank. In order to continue its half a million jobs (Artur, 2004). power over the policies of former HIPC The World Bank hinged assistance to Mozambique on the removal of protections, including to the cashew industry, which countries the IMF introduced the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) (50 Years is Enough, 2006). was a major employer of women (Hanlon, Through the PSI review process, the IMF 2000). Meanwhile, the food subsidy system has continued to influence Mozambique’s was abolished and replaced with cash budget and policy priorities, and the terms transfers to a handful of people in urban of donor aid. centres (Castel-Branco, 2021b). Today, the World Bank funds 53 projects in In response, the IMF set up the Heavily Mozambique. These amount to $3.7 billion, Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. which is equivalent to the annual national This promised debt relief to 18 countries budget. Figure 1: IBRD and IDA commitments (in millions of dollars) 12 Fast-tracking Financialization - International Financial Institutions’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Mozambique