The International Monetary Fund's Africa Regional Technical Assistance Center South (AFRITAC South)1 will double its technical assistance and related training activities across southern Africa in the current financial year compared to the previous financial year.

The center's Steering Committee agreed at a two-day meeting earlier in November in Windhoek, to endorse closer collaboration between AFRITAC South and the future regional training center for sub-Saharan Africa to be established in Mauritius.

The meeting was attended by officials from nine AFRITAC South member countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), representatives of donors and regional organizations--the African Development Bank, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), UK Government Department for International Development (DFID), European Union, European Investment Bank, Swiss Economic Cooperation (SECO), as well as IMF staff. Representatives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) participated as observers.

Members of the Steering Committee agreed that AFRITAC South had become a leading technical assistance hub on macro-economic policy frameworks in southern Africa. They noted significant achievements during the first year of the center's operations (FY 2012), particularly in the areas of public financial management and revenue administration.