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Today’s multi-stakeholder dialogue was convened in this spirit. Werecognise that it is not the first such event to take place on the continentin response to the financial crisis and it will certainly not be thelast. However, it is possibly one of the first to bring together such across section of views and expertise in such a gathering to discuss anissue that affects all of us today and that will impact on Africa’s futureprospects.When I addressed the opening of the African Economic Conferencein Addis Ababa, which focused on “Fostering Economic Developmentin an era of Financial Crisis”, I highlighted the need for Africa to lookpast the impact of the current global crisis and focus on implementingsteps that will re-direct Africa’s development trajectory to makegrowth more enduring and sustainable.To do so, we need to look beyond academic discussions of economicparadigms and focus on the ways that all stakeholders can be involvedin harnessing the manifold resources and talents of this continent inorder to generate employment and wealth creation that is critical tosustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals.At the same time we need to deepen the process of regional integration,especially given the impact of recent crises (food, fuel, and financial)which have shown that no single African economy is immuneor ever able to weather the storms alone. As the proverb says, “Whenit rains, it is not only your neighbours’ houses that get wet”.This gathering of such a diverse group of African “neighbours”, stakeholdersand partners to discuss Africa’s response to the global financialcrisis, I am certain our dialogue will indeed make a useful contributionto forging of a new “African consensus” on what Africa needsto do to put its economies on track to ensuring long term growth thatwill benefit the people of Africa.When the CoDA Board agreed on the importance of convening thisdialogue at its first meeting in Addis Ababa in March 2009, there wasconsensus that the Forum should in no way be seen to compete with,or duplicate, the good work of the other processes that are currentlyongoing, but rather seek to support and encourage them.156 Part Three