Ghana to host Financing conference

Accra, May 11, GNA - Finance and Energy Ministers from across Africa are to meet in Accra to find sustainable solutions for financing the energy sector and its contributions under the Millennium Development Goals. The Accra Financing for Development conference, which is under the theme "Infrastructure for Growth-The Energy Challenge ", is scheduled for May in Accra would bring together members of the donor community as well as some civil society groups.

It would provide the platform to discuss more results oriented ways of effectively delivering the commitments made by Africa's development partners during the 2005 G8 Gleneagles meeting, and propose new strategies for follow up action. A release from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said, the meeting followed a series of meetings including the Abuja, Singapore and Maputo conferences which brought together African Finance, education, energy ministers international financial institutions, development partners and the IMF to deliberate on issues pertaining to the achievement of the MDGs.


It said the Financing for Development meetings came about when it dawn on both African countries and their development partners that, Africa was unlikely to meet the MDGs unless aid was increased substantially.

Though the development partners responded through unprecedented aid commitments, aid inflow has been slow. The meeting would therefore give the development partners and African countries a platform to produce concrete next steps in converting the commitments into development outcomes. 10 May 07