Committee of Ten Adopts Position for G20 Summit

Dar es Salaam, 12 March 2009 -- The Committee of African Ministers of Finance and Governors of Central Banks will meet the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London on Monday, March 16, 2009 to discuss Africa’s positions in the G20 process in light of the current global financial and economic crisis.

As the chair of the April Summit, Mr. Brown, has extended this ‘Africa outreach’ invitation to all major African Institutions.

At the close of the Committee’s meeting in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, on Wednesday, the Committee mapped out a clear way forward and outlined Africa’s major concerns in the face of the current crisis in preparation for the G20 leader’s Summit in April.

Heads of the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission will attend the meeting.

The Committee was created at a conference of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors held in Tunis on 12 November 2008 and comprises five Finance Ministers and five Central Bank Governors from each of Africa’s Southern, Eastern, Northern, Western and Central African Regions.

The Tunis meeting charged the Committee with taking stock of the impact of the current global financial and economic crisis on Africa, providing appropriate advice to African Heads of State, and developing policy options for the G20 process.

The Committee held its first meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in January, “to take stock of the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the African continent, review international and regional response efforts and to prepare a joint program for African countries to contribute effectively to the response.”

• London Summit 2009 website

• More about the Financial Crisis