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AFRICAN FINANCE MINISTERS MEET IN ETHIOPIA FOR CRUCIAL DEBATE
SEPTEMBER 2007 will mark the mid-point on the road to 2015, the date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals which were adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 as part of the Millennium Declaration, and African ministers of finance, planning and economic development met in Addis to discus how to accelerate growth on the continent to meet the MDGs.
Recent assessments by ECA and others conclude that Africa is at risk of not achieving the goals by the date. The MDGs are time-bound goals and targets that represent the international community's commitment to reduce extreme poverty by half and improve key indicators of human development by 2015, relative to their 1990 levels.
During the two-day meeting the ministers discussed key topics including growth, employment and inequality in Africa; scaling up financing and public sector investments; planning, monitoring and tracking economic performance; peace and security; and partnerships and globalization.
According to experts in the field, Africa has numerous challenges in achieving the targeted MDGs. Although some African countries have been growing at more than 5% per annum, many countries show smaller or negative growth rates.
Climate change is also adversely affecting growth including agriculture and manufacturing.
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