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African Economic Outlook
Preliminary Programme - Additional Experts
The International Forum on African Perspectives was created by the African Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre in 2000 as a innovative framework to bring together the expertise available in OECD Member countries with that of specialists from the Member countries of the African Development Bank. Consisting of both an Experts' Seminar and a Round Table, it is designed to promote an informal exchange of views among policy makers, high-level experts, representatives of the business and financial communities, journalists and public figures generally. The first Forum focused on the topic of "Emerging Africa" and the second, in 2001, on "Regional Integration in Africa". In both cases, the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry hosted parts of the meetings.
This third Forum coincides with the publication of the first OECD Development Centre/African Development Bank report African Economic Outlook and therefore the Forum will build on the report by examining its findings before turning to several topics identified for Africa as needing more in-depth analysis.
The next day, the President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade will present his views and proposals for the future development of Africa, including on the new plan for African development launched in October 2001, the "New Partnership for African Development" (NEPAD). The NEPAD involves a range of ambitious targets relating to governance, education, investment and information technology, communications and infrastructure.
Questions to be explored during the Forum include the following:
- The African Economic Outlook shows that African reveals that countries which have undertaken structural reforms demonstrate better performance, but how can reforms be sustained? And what lessons can African governments draw from each other's successes and failures in implementing reforms?
- What steps are needed to improve political governance to bring about greater political and social stability, notably poverty alleviation and a reduction in tensions?
- What role will aid play in a new system of global governance to protect African countries from the volatility of the international economic system? In this context, what may be expected from the debt relief HIPC initiative which is now in its implementation phase?
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