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Meeting Africa’snew challengesin the 21st CenturyJoint Annual Meeting of the AUConference of Minister of Economy andFinance and ECA Conference of AfricanMinisters of Finance, Planning andEconomic DevelopmentAddis Ababa, Ethiopia31 March 2008As you know, this Conference is a special one. It is the first timethat a joint meeting is being held under the auspices of the AfricanUnion and Economic Commission for Africa, which apart from reducingthe number of annual meetings to attend, will permit greatercoordination of regional policy outcomes. Coming together at thistime will also enable consultations and adoption of common positionsprior to other key events, such as the spring meetings of theBretton Woods Institutions, Board of Governors of the African DevelopmentBank and the G8 Summit.Although attaining fifty years is by itself a landmark worth commemorating,in the case of ECA I believe that we are celebratingsolid achievements. Over the past fifty years, ECA has lived up toits mandate of promoting the economic and social development ofAfrica and also generated lasting ideas to underpin African developmentthrough its research, advocacy, technical cooperation and consensusbuilding activities. ECA’s proudest tradition is its independentthinking, which has informed your policy prescriptions over theyears. Without a doubt, many ideas advocated here over the pasthalf-century have become part of mainstream thinking, but our rolein popularising them is often forgotten.16 Part One