Addis Ababa — More than 30 African Ministers of Finance and Trade, joined by Governors of Central Banks and leading economists and development experts, will meet at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) next week to prepare for two major UN activities that will take place in 2001.
The Eighth Session of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, to be held from 21 - 22 November 2000, aims to prepare African countries for the two major events that have been mandated by the UN General Assembly to be convened during 2001: a High-Level Inter-Governmental Event on Financing for Development and the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Organized by ECA with the African Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Conference will focus on some of the major development challenges facing Africa. It will also address the need to accelerate Africa ?s growth and development through better integration into the global economy, particularly in relation to the least developed countries - 33 of which are in Africa.
Last year's Conference of African Finance Ministers addressed Official Development Assistance (ODA), other sources of external finance, capital flight, domestic resource mobilization, Africa's debt, and the impact of the East Asian Crisis. The conclusions of the 1999 conference helped influence international policy and opinion. The Ministerial Declaration from the conference constituted a key input into the Cologne meeting of the G8, which, among other issues, met to discuss Africa's debt and the Highly Indebted Poorest Countries (HIPC) initiative.
This year, the Ministers will review recent developments in the context of their previous positions and recommendations, and define positions for the forthcoming global conferences. The Conference will feature panel discussions on: Debt, ODA and links to Poverty Reduction; Trade and Investment; and the International Financial Architecture.
African Finance Ministers will also deliberate on the recommendations of a preliminary High-Level Regional Consultative Meeting on Financing for Development and Preparatory Meeting for the Third UN Conference on LDCs, which took place in Addis Ababa, from 15 - 17 November 2000.
The Conference will issue two Ministerial Statements to ensure that Africa's concerns are firmly placed on the agenda of the High Level Intergovernmental Event on Financing or Development and the Third UN Conference for the Least Developed Countries.
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For all the relevant documents, please visit the new ECA web site at www.uneca.org and click on the 'What's New' link.
For further information, please contact: The Communication Team Economic Commission for Africa P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-44 50 98 or +251-1-44 31 61 Fax: +251-1-5103 65 Cell: +251-9-20 17 94 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org>
