The global economic downturn that began with the shake in the American economy has been described as a global problem that requires a global solution. This crunch has not spared Africa from its impacts, whose ultimate end is seen as the exacerbation of poverty.

The aphorismic contention that whatever happens in the United States of America affects the rest of the world has proved clearly true for months now as almost every corner of the globe is shaken by the economic crisis that has it roots in that country of 50 states. It is no surprise, then, that most leaders, including Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, make the issue a major topic whenever they get a platform to speak.

There may be probably a number of international events, like the 120th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held in Addis Abeba last week, where every discussion was somehow tied to the global economic crisis.

"When the American economy coughs, the rest of the world sneezes," goes the adage.

This is, indeed, clearly manifested in the ongoing crisis that is knocking on the doors of nearly every nation around the globe; it is also clear that the crisis began as a financial crisis in the US - with the collapse of its real estate market because of the extremely imprudent and unregulated loans provided to the industry, otherwise known as "sub-prime mortgages" - and quickly evolved into an economic crisis that swarmed the world.

Thus, it is no wonder that most of the agenda of IPU's Addis Abeba Assembly from last Sunday, April 5 to Friday April 10, 2009, was dominated by talks of the economic downturn.

Established in 1889 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organization in the world, has 154 member parliaments and eight associated regional assemblies. It also has an office in New York, which acts as its permanent observer to the United Nation.

More than 1,000 parliamentarians and officials of various multilateral institutions attended the union's first-ever assembly in Addis Abeba.

While opening the assembly at the Millennium Hall on Sunday night, Meles described the economic malaise as an issue that has become a complex economic, social, political, and security crisis.

"The current crisis is threatening to loosen our [Africa's] achievements and to aggravate our challenges," Meles told the gathering. "The optimism that was so prevalent a year or two years ago in so many countries is beginning to fade with serious consequences for peace, development, and democracy. The fragile peace we [Africans] have achieved in a number of conflict situations is beginning to show dangerous cracks."

But Meles seems more concerned about the way countries, especially in the West, respond to the downturn than the actual crisis.

Though there are actions to be taken by individual nations in response to the crisis, for Meles this is a global problem which requires a global solution. Nevertheless, he asserted that Africans have had no role in the genesis of the crisis and are mere victims of its global reach.

IPU's President, himself an African, seems to share Meles's argument.

"The ultimate impact of this crisis will be the exacerbation of poverty. And it is extreme poverty that ultimately destabilizes society and the working of institutions. It is poverty that imperils peace," Theo-Ben Gurirab (PhD) addressed the gathering at the Millennium Hall that same night.

The catalyst for this upheaval is in the banking system, in its uses and abuses, according to Gurirab. The crisis was triggered by the failures of a system which many foresaw and none managed to correct.

"But the planet is imperilled by more than the misuse of money, devastating as its effect for many is. Let us not forget, the great majority of the inhabitants of the earth have no money to lose in the first place," he said.

According to the President, these people have never lost a house through the foreclosure of loans because they have never known what it is to live in a house.

Yet again, he considers the economic hurricane that is sweeping the world as heralding in an opportunity.

"It is a time to think afresh, it is a moment for one of those revolutions in the human imagination that sow new ideas; new thinking on how to make more and better jobs for women and men, spread the world's riches more equitably, and work for the good and not for the determent of our planet," he said.

Not only the Premier's and the President's argument complement each other, but also that of Abdoulie Janneh, executive director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) who spoke on behalf of Ban Ki Moon, UN secretary general. What he said added to the global concern on the crisis as was reflected at the assembly.

"The economic crisis risks a reversal of hard-won development gains. People everywhere are understandably angry; they could well lose faith in their leaders and their own future. We could be on the brink of widespread social unrest," he warned.

Ban Ki Moon thus urged members of the G-20 Summit, held two weeks ago in London, to provide a substantial stimulus plan and for reform of global rules and institutions.

"We must do our utmost to protect the poorest and more vulnerable members of human family, and avoid a catastrophe in human development," reads the Secretary General's message.

The economic crisis is expected to trap up to 53 million additional people in poverty across the developing world in 2009. This is on top of the 135 to 155 million people pushed into poverty in 2008 because of the soaring food and fuel prices, according to a recent estimate by the World Bank. The statement presented by Edith Grace Ssempala, the Bank's Director for International Affairs, indicates that the global economic crisis is worse than previously thought and it is prolonged. Its duration will largely depend on the speed and effectiveness of policy measures adopted by high income countries, where the crisis originated.

The global economic crisis is increasingly hitting developing countries as evidenced in slower growth, declining exports, decrease in private financial flows and a drop in remittance flows.

Meles also referred to the situation as a testing element that can determine the legitimacy of globalization.

"Globalization is here to stay and we are all part of a global system. The legitimacy of any system is tested in challenging times, such us the one we are in," he said. "Any system can be legitimate only in so far as all stakeholders have a say in it and the weakest stakeholders are testified fairly. A system based on the principles of every one fending for himself or herself and the devil taking the hindmost cannot be a legitimate one."

According to Meles, the enticement of a country taking care of its individual interests without due consideration to other stakeholders, particularly the vulnerable, threatens to fatally weaken the legitimacy of globalization from which they have all benefited to varying degrees.

"We have to resist such temptation if we are to have any chance to succeed in fully overcoming our current challenges."

The World Bank's latest estimate of global economic growth in 2009 forecasts a contraction of 1.7pc compared to economic growth last year, which stood at 1.9pc. This would be the first decline in the global economy since World War II. The estimate also suggests a 6.1pc drop in the volume of trade in goods and services, the largest declines in 80 years.

So much frightening is the crisis that most of the participants of the 120th Assembly of IPU suggest peace and democracy in many parts of the world can be threatened due to their strong ties with development.

"First of all is peace because without peace, there is no development to speak off. And without development, peace cannot last long because every body wants to change his living conditions," states Zha Peixin, member of the National People's Congress of China and vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Standing Committee.

He forwarded five measures to curb the current crisis: stabilizing the international financial crisis; stimulating the growth of an economy; resolutely opposing trade and investment protectionism; paying greater attention to the issue of development; and increasing aid to developing countries rather than decreasing it.