Identifying IMF's priorities in Africa

AFRICA: The Afrec coordinating committee met on October 9 in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss with the IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina IMF priorities for 2010 and beyond and to plan for 2010 regional activities. This important coordinating meeting was attended by members of the Executive in Africa’s three sub-regions and their substitutes. Also participating in the meeting were the general secretaries of IMF affiliates in the four countries in the southern Africa sub-region.

The meeting heard from affiliates presenting their country’s challenges and enabled participants to exchange ideas. Three countries were immediately identified as priorities for the next few months. They are:

Kenya: The meeting agreed that there is an urgent need to engage the two IMF affiliates in Kenya to develop an organizing strategy, it became clear in the reports from both IMF regional representative Stephen Nhlapo and the Kenyan delegate that there are more than 100,000 metalworkers in Kenya who are not organized and the situation needs to change. The meeting also tasked the other executive committee members and IMF to work with the two Kenyan unions towards the formation of one union in that country.

Zimbabwe: The meeting agreed to dispatch a delegation of Numsa leadership to meet with the two unions and the national centre to discuss ways of speeding up the merger discussions and to encourage parties to cooperate with the process.

Swaziland: The meeting agreed that IMF regional representative, working with the IMF Executive Committee, should meet with the Swaziland national centre leadership to try and resolve the relationship between our affiliate and the centre. The meeting agreed that it is unacceptable that our affiliate is not part of the national centre in that country.

After the presentation by the IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina on IMF priorities based on the IMF action program and regional priorities based on the consultation document the meeting agreed on the following issues:

• There is a need to add the issue of industrialization of the continent as part of the regional priorities, including the development of an industrial development strategy that can be used by affiliates when they engage the government about development,

• The regional office should develop a strategy to organize and recruit affiliates in west Africa and strengthen the sub-region, this is one of the key priorities in 2010,

• All affiliates need to play a role in IMF activities including making input on the consultation documents,
• That affiliates in the region should meet to re-discuss the regional strategy but before the meeting the region should provide affiliates with a detailed analysis of each affiliate and that country’s economy and politics.