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Joint Press Release: UNCTAD and UNECA Subregional Office for Eastern Africa Press Release No. 43/2009 Kigali, 28 September 2009 (UNCTAD/UNECA): “Although external assistance will continue to play an essential role in Africa’s development, a focus on domestic resources to meet the medium- to long‑term development needs of African countries is justified” outlines the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’ s policy Handbook on Enhancing the Role of Domestic Financial Resources in Africa’s Development. The launching of the handbook took place on Monday, 28 September 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda during a ceremony jointly organized by UNCTAD in collaboration with the ECA Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa (UNECA/SRO-EA). The handbook published by UNCTAD in 2009, came out “at the moment when all over the world policy makers are looking to ways and means to mitigate the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on their economies”, stated Mr. André Nikwigize, the Senior Economic Affairs Officer, at the ECA Subregional Office for Eastern Africa, in his opening statement. He further recalled that African countries need to seek for alternative sources of financing if they are to meet their investment needs and development goals. Mr. Nikwigize added that domestic resource mobilization has two important elements: enhancing government revenue (public savings) and increasing private savings. Opening the workshop, Dr. Nkurunziza D. Janvier, UNCTAD Project Manager, indicated that the discussions will be centred on two questions: How should Africa generate more financial resources to fund its development needs and what should be done to maximize the efficiency of these resources ? He further indicated that at the end of the workshop participants would be having a clearer idea on how to better help African countries adopt strategies that would increase their development, and use efficiently available resources to put the continent on a sustainable growth path. The workshop brought together more than 30 participants from Rwanda public administration and institutions, civil society, private sector, central bank, commercial and development banks, international organizations, research institutions as well as academia. Rather than being only an analytical document, this handbook seeks to be a practical policy-oriented guide. Its main objective is to highlight some largely neglected opportunities for increasing the types and levels of financial resources for the continent’s development through an improvement in domestic financial resource mobilization and efficient use. However, domestic financial resources will not by themselves solve all the problems faced by African countries, achieving development objectives. A key message of the handbook is that “the African states should seek to do more to stimulate domestic financial resource mobilization and ensure they are efficiently allocated” said Dr. Nkurunziza. In this context, the results of the study done in 8 African countries (Benin, Burundi, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia) have revealed that the most important issue to address enhancing the role of domestic resources in development is tackling the high level of uncertainty that prevails in African economies. This uncertainty is mainly due to the economic and political instability that has characterized many African countries until recent times.
Finally, enhancing domestic resource mobilization will further the capacity of African countries to pursue nationally owned development strategies by increasing the amount of resources available for development while reducing dependence on development partners. The 2009 ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance recognized the importance of domestic resource mobilization as an alternative source of funding with regard to the declining of international resources, but also as a valuable tool to boost private savings. For more information and/ or interview, please contact: Mr. Julien Bucyabahiga Dr. Janvier Nkurunziza Dr. Joseph Baricako
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