Dar Es Salaam — Delegates were expected to draft a common African position on the global and financial crisis to be presented to the G20 Summit to be held in London in April. The delegates were also expected to discuss the evolving financial and economic crisis and its impact on Africa as well as possible ways to ease its impact on the African continent.
The Committee was created at a meeting of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors held in Tunis on 12 November 2008 to discuss the global financial crisis and consider options for easing its impact on African economies, among other issues. The meeting was convened by the African Union, the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
Representatives on the Committee are from each of the three institutions and a Finance Minister and a Central Bank Governor from each of Africa's Southern, Eastern, Northern, Western and Central African Regions.
The Tunis meeting charged the Committee with taking stock of the impact of the current global financial and economic crisis on Africa, providing appropriate advice to African Heads of State, and making a case for improved African representation in multilateral economic institutions.
The Committee held its first meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in January, "to take stock of the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the African continent, review international and regional response efforts and to prepare a joint program for African countries to contribute effectively to the response."
On creating the Committee in Tunis, the African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors said in a communiqué that the crisis could not have come at a worse time for the African continent and was a major setback to recent economic progress.
"We believe that the global slowdown will diminish trade opportunities, access to finance, migrant remittances and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)," delegates to the meeting said
They said the crisis was undermining the significant progress made over the last 10 years and worsening the impact of especially sharp increases in food prices. "Climate change will also impose additional costs on African economies. Together, these will particularly impact on the millions of poor in Africa. We are facing a human as well as financial crisis," they said.
The delegates at the Tunis meeting urged the G8 Group of countries to restore financial stability and confidence in the global markets, unfreeze credit and money markets, ensure access to liquidity, and recapitalize and support important financial institutions to boost demand. We welcome the new instruments put in place by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and the steps taken to provide urgent support to the emerging market countries. They called on the IFIs to provide timely and appropriate support to the African continent.
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Financial crisis Impacts on Africa (study by AfDB Chief Economist's Office) (79 KB)
