From Gideon Sackitey
Abuja, May 16, GNA – South Africa’s Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel has advocated an Aid Transparency Initiative focused on monitoring aid flow and how the aid is managed on the African continent.
Contributing to a discussion at the 38th Conference of the African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development currently underway in Abuja, Nigeria, Mr Manuel said it was important that the huge volumes of aid that flowed into Africa were adequately monitored and tracked, “our national economies could respond positively to the demands of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) if these steps among other things are adhered to.” He welcomed the support of Sweden to help return monies stashed in European banks and asked other members of the OECD states to support Africa to repatriate the billions of dollars stashed in their banks by corrupt leaders on the continent.
The conference has about 35 Finance, Planning and Development Ministers and Governors of central banks attending and is a prelude to the African Development Bank Annual Meetings scheduled to start on May 18. Mr Manuel was optimistic that more funds were flowing out of Africa than she received, a situation he described as unacceptable, considering the fact that African economies had to undergo tremendous recovery programmes to access funds from international finance institutions.
The SA Finance Minister said it was important for Africa to make a significant impact towards the achievement of the MDG’s and retrieving lost money that was reported to run into billions of dollars would be a good reprieve. “What I will recommends is that these funds are channelled into the urgently needed infrastructure that is required for the upliftment of our people.” In order to obtain these targets and objectives, Mr Manuel suggested the deepening of partnership between African leaders and their people within the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), increased lobbying for OECD country support and a strong alliance to make poverty to become history. Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on African Affairs, called the Report “Africa friendly” as it takes into effect the direction of NEPAD to achieve set goals on the continent. He advocated leadership by example as a means of galvanising international support for development in Africa.
Presenting the Secretary-General’s comments to the Meeting, Mr Gambari said the Report offered leaders a fresh opportunity to promote among other things accountable governance, adding that it was important for all the 53 states to join the African Peer Review Mechanism to sustain growth and poverty reduction on the continent.
Source: GhanaWeb
