Summit on poverty reduction

At least 20 African leaders, finance ministers and central bank officials began a two-day meeting in Gabon on Monday on ways to spur further economic growth and reduce poverty, news reports said.

They were joined at the meeting by the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus, who told them to move fast in strengthening their economies.

“We must act now,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

He promised that the IMF would begin to assess ways of reducing poverty but told the heads of state they must improve their systems of government, tackle corruption and curb arms spending.

The conference follows the annual IMF/World Bank meeting with member countries in September 1999 on a new approach to tackle poverty and reduce debt.

For over a decade, the IMF adopted the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAP) as a blueprint for achieving macro-economic stability in needy countries. This focused, among other things, on reducing budget deficits and the privatisation of state assets as a condition for financial assistance. Critics say the reduced social spending ESAPs entailed worsened poverty.

Considered too harsh for most countries to apply, ESAP was replaced in November 1999 with the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, under which structural adjustment programmes also take the views of development bodies and civil society into consideration.