6 September 2006
Addis Ababa — 33 AFRICAN COUNTRIES TO BENEFIT FROM US$8.5 DEBT RELIEF
Following the approval by the Board of Governors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) became effective on Friday, the bank group said in a statement on Monday Thirty-three African member countries would benefit from the US$ 8.5 billion debt relief under the MDRI to be provided by the ADF, the bank said.
The MDRI, which was proposed by the G8 at the Gleneagles Summit on 8 July 2005, is an initiative to cancel 100 percent of the claims of three multilateral financial institutions, the African Development Fund (ADF), the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on countries that had reached or would eventually reach the completion point under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).
According to the bank group, the MDRI is expected to give beneficiary countries the opportunity to reduce their overall debt service payments substantially and, through continued good performance, secure additional resource flows to help them attain the Millennium Development Goals.
"The AfDB attaches great importance to the effort of generating additional resources for the MDGs for its regional member countries," AfDB said.
The AfDB said it would continue to help its regional member countries to try and make faster progress towards the MDGs, with emphasis on promoting economic growth, sound policies, governance and effective use of resources.
Ethiopia, along with Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and 10 other countries is in the Post-Completion Point Countries in the list of beneficiaries.
In related news, the African Virtual University (AVU) announced yesterday that as part of the Teacher Education program initiative underway with Partnership with AfDB and NEPAD organized an innovative work shop in Nairobi that was attended by participants from 10African countries.
A key component of this project the University said is developing curriculum development of academic modules that can be delivered as Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) programs.
Participants from 10 African countries including Ethiopia attended the "highly intensive two week work shop."
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