PDF (2.0 MB)

Millennium Development Goals. Our concern about recent stronggrowth in Africa was that it was not enough to meet the MDGs by thetarget date of 2015 and that it was not reducing income inequalitiesnor creating jobs. Reduced growth in Africa as a result of deterioratingglobal conditions will no doubt further limit progress towardsachieving the MDGs and may reverse modest gains that have beenmade in this regard.At the international level, it has become imperative to fashion a newand improved international financial architecture to better regulateglobalised financial flows, ensure better surveillance and take accountof the emergence of developing countries as key economic actors.It became very clear in the recent past that unilateral action bythe biggest economies does not work because we live in a world ofeconomic interdependence. It is therefore heartening that there areseveral key initiatives being taken to coordinate reform of the internationalfinancial architecture.This gathering has a unique opportunity to put across its point ofview on some of the issues I have just raised. In particular, I wouldurge you to adopt an African common position that includes a strongcall for Africa’s voice to be heard around the table in decision-makingat the global level. We should moreover call for observer status atglobal talks on the financial crisis and on a new international financialarchitecture for our own development finance institution, theAfrican Development Bank.Worrying as the potential impact of the current crisis seems to be, italso points to an opportunity in the sense that our economies mustboth individually and collectively begin to focus on the key issue ofdomestic resource mobilisation. Evidence abounds from other regionsthat economic progress receives a significant boost from havinga stronger domestic resource base rather than relying mainly onexternal support.Notwithstanding, this meeting should issue a strong call to developedcountries to maintain and even upscale official developmentassistance to Africa countries, in the spirit of current counter-cyclicalspending in their domestic economies. These issues will of coursecome up at the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Developmenttaking place at the end of this month and Africa should go toIntegrating Africa193