Addis Ababa — Two of Africa's major development institutions have announced that for the first time they will synchronize their annual legislative meetings in a bid to foster greater coherence, strengthen partnership and provide a unique forum for African policymakers to forge common positions on how to address key challenges facing the continent.
The Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB), initially scheduled to take place at its headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, will now take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 3 - 5 June 2003, at the invitation of the Ethiopian Government. The Annual Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will be held on Sunday 1 June 2003, preceded by a meeting of the Committee of Experts from 29 - 30 May.
African Finance, Planning and Economic Development Ministers are key policymakers for both the ADB and ECA. Back-to-back meetings would allow these senior policy makers to agree on strategy in time for crucial negotiations at the annual meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions on the one hand, and to discuss and chart new policy initiatives on the other.
As part of the new arrangement, the two institutions will jointly sponsor the Annual Meetings Symposium, to be held on 2 June and previously a hallmark of the ADB Annual Meetings. The theme of this year's Symposium is "Poverty Reduction, Social Development, and the Millennium Development Goals in Africa: Are We Making Progress on the Ground?".
Over the years, the ADB Annual Meetings Symposium has attracted Heads of States, senior policy makers, renowned academics, and representatives of the private sector and civil society organizations and has become an important forum for the exchange of views on topical African development issues. Last year's Symposium focused on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, as one of its keynote speakers. The NEPAD Head of States and Government Implementing Committee has designated the ADB to play a leading role in the areas of infrastructure, banking and financial standards. This year's Symposium is also expected to attract a similar audience and elicit high-level participation.
In recent years, the ECA Conference of Ministers has provided a forum for agreement on strategy in tackling key challenges facing the continent. In last year's meeting, held in South Africa, Ministers and some 500 other participants -- including central bank governors, leading academics and researchers, civil society and private sector representatives, and the international community -- met in what was the largest gathering dealing with economic policy in Africa on NEPAD since its endorsement by African leaders. At that meeting, Ministers were unified in their call for action, and outlined detailed proposals for how NEPAD could best be moved forward.
