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The Caucus of African Governors in the Bretton Wood Institutions: Press Release
21 October 2007
African Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
We, the African Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have engaged ourselves in a wide array of far-reaching reforms to achieve macroeconomic stability, and high and sustainable rates of economic growth. Nevertheless, we are realizing that most of our countries will not reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for our economies lack the supportive basic infrastructure to compete in the increasingly globalizing World. Indeed, the efforts that our countries make to raise the competitiveness of our economies are undermined by the poor quality of infrastructure, which is the result of lack of adequate funding. In order to fill this huge financing gap, we call on the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) to improve our countries’ access to concessional resources and international capital markets and to employ more flexibility in their policies to allow the low-income countries’ access to non-concessional financing.
Governors note with concern that firm commitment by the international community notably at the Gleneagles Summit held in July 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010 is already off track. Of even greater concern, global Official Direct Assistance (ODA), excluding Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Multi-lateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) is declining over time, undermining our efforts in making progress to attain the MDGs. We call our development partners to urgently take steps to honor their commitments in providing the necessary resources to accelerate the pace of economic growth and poverty reduction. In this vein, we particularly call for a comprehensive replenishment of IDA-15 taking into account both the need to ensure International Development Association’s (IDA) ongoing financial integrity after the donors’ commitment for debt relief and the need to meet the massive requirements for financing the MDGs.
Governors are concerned about the continued erosion of the voice and representation of Africa in the Bretton Wood Institutions. To maintain their credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness, there is a need to reverse the current trend by ensuring fair representation of the developing countries in the policy and decision making process in the two institutions. In this regard, Governors call for the implementation of a package of reforms which will include increasing basic votes, ensuring that the quota formula at the IMF does not further marginalize the weakest groups, promoting diversity at all levels and strengthening the Sub Saharan African Executive Directors offices in the BWIs.
Governors noted the very slow and partial implementation of the decision to appoint more than one Alternate Executive Director in the Sub Saharan African Executive Director offices to strengthen their capacity to better serve their numerous countries. Consequently, they call for the Management and the Executive Directors to expedite the amendment of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement to enable those Alternate Executive Directors to be appointed. In this vein, they call for the Bank to follow suite in ensuring that at minimum, it parallels what the IMF achieves.
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