The DPF 2009 will be re-launched on Thursday, February 5 with a special DPF ‘Future World’ lunch debate entitled “Africa: Sustaining successes in the face of global turmoil”. It will focus on the impacts of global financial crisis on low income countries in Africa.
Last autumn’s financial markets meltdown is ushering in a global recession that is already being compared with the Great Depression and the ”hungry thirties”. The turmoil also presents unprecedented challenges for African policymakers with falling commodity prices threatening to undermine recent economic successes in many sub-Saharan African countries where growth and rising income levels have had a significant impact on poverty reduction. Demand for commodities, capital flows, and debt relief helped, but their successes also reflected sound policies fostering stable, low-inflationary economic environments. But how can African policymakers best deal with the impact of global financial turmoil? And what policies should donor nations and organisations adopt that can reconcile their aid commitments with the increasingly heavy pressures on their own budgets? Has the time now come for a revolutionary re-think of development assistance?
Introductory remarks by:
§ Antoinette Sayeh, Director of the Africa Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Former Liberian Minister for Finance
Comments by:
§ Stefano Manservisi*, European Commission Director General for Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States
§ Sir John Kaputin*, Secretary General of the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
§ Peter Gakunu, Former Executive Director for Anglophone Africa of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Moderated by Robert Cox, Trustee of Friends of Europe and Former Special Former Senior Advisor to the European Community’s Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and Gie Goris, Editor-in-Chief of MO*.
Time and venue: Thursday 5 February 2009, 12.00 to 13.50, at the Bibliothèque Solvay, Parc Léopold, Brussels
Title: DPF ‘Future World’ Lunch Debate “Africa: Sustaining successes in the face of global turmoil”
Contact person: Ringailė Trakymaitė (Senior Project Manager); email: ringaile.trakymaite@friendsofeurope.org; phone: +32 (0)2 738 7595.
Website: www.friendsofeurope.org
