African Ministers of Finance Meet in Tunis
By Andrew Allimadi
22 November 2005

African Ministers of Finance will meet in Tunis on November 22 and 23, 2005, to seek a common position on a range of issues affecting regional economic development and chart a course of action for the coming years.  The two-day meeting was organized by the African Development Bank, and will also be addressed by the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, and attended by representatives of the African Union, the NEPAD Secretariat, and other important regional economic organizations.

The ministerial conference will review initiatives emanating from last July's G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, where G8 leaders made proposals, later endorsed by other donors, on Africa's development. The Ministers will discuss debt cancellation initiatives within the broad context of mobilizing resources to finance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa. 

The Ministers will also examine a framework for a pan-African needs analysis; discuss measures to ensure that any scaling up of aid will result in effective outcomes on the ground; pay special attention to the infrastructure needs of the region, especially as identified within the NEPAD framework; examine the impact of oil price increases on African economies; and exchange views on issues of trade policies and trading capacity against the background of the Doha Round and the forthcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Hong Kong. 

The director of ECA's trade and regional integration division, Hakim Ben Hammouda, will make a presentation on the Doha Round and prospects for Africa. An ECA paper examining the Doha Round and its implications for Africa is also attached.