Washington — The Washington, D.C. based Constituency for Africa (CFA), led by it's Chairman, former California Congressman Ron Dellums, and President and CEO, Melvin Foote, have established formal links with the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Africa Club, to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

he first of a series of round-table planning meetings was held in the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington last week. Particpants in the meeting included Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA), and Ambassador Mamadou Mansour Seck of Senegal.

There are more than 1,200 Africans who make up the Africa Club of the World Bank/IMF. Most are highly trained economists and technicians, serving in the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and in missions around the world. The Africa Club is not a formal institution within the World Bank/IMF structures, and operates under it's own by-laws. The Chairman of the Africa Club is Dr. Sidi Jammeh, an economist from The Gambia.

Melvin Foote of CFA described the first meeting of the two groups as historic! Said Foote, "The only way we will succeed in finding a solution to the AIDS pandemic in Africa, is to form collaborative linkages. CFA's advocacy capabilities combined with the World Bank and IMF Africa Club's technical expertise, can only bode well for efforts to find meaningful solutions to this crisis which now claims more than 7,000 lives a day in Africa". Sidi Jammeh was also quite encouraged with the round-table meeting with the Constituency for Africa. "We Africans inside the World Bank/IMF Structures, have long admired the outstanding policy advocacy work which has been done by CFA over the years. For our part, we fully intend for this new collaboration to play a very useful role in the fight against HIV/AIDS on the continent. We also want to work with CFA to promote U.S. trade with the African continent, and to address African conflicts", said Jammeh.

Contact: Constituency for Africa, 202 371-0588.