African Caucus wraps up meeting with adoption of Marrakesh Declaration

The 2022 meeting of the African Consultative Group of Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors of the 54 African Member States of the World Bank and the IMF wrapped up works Wednesday in Marrakech with the adoption of the “Marrakech Declaration”.

The document urged the WB and the International Monetary Fund to provide “rapid, comprehensive and substantial” debt relief to help Africa mitigate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis and limit their fallout on economic growth.

The African Caucus, held this year under the theme “Towards a Resilient Africa”, called for a rapid implementation of the commitment made at the G7 Summit (June 2022), including the urgent need to improve multilateral debt restructuring frameworks and address the challenges related to debt vulnerabilities.

Participants also called on the Bretton Woods Institutions to speed up deployment of a fresh global debt architecture and to support the African Continent’s call for an extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).

The opening of the 2022 African Caucus was marked by a message sent by King Mohammed VI to participants wherein he called for more international support and cooperation to enable African countries to mitigate the impacts of the soaring inflation affecting the global economy and enhance their resilience in the face of external shocks.

Morocco is chair of the Caucus which meets once a year to coordinate stands and views of Governors of African Central Banks before the annual WB-IMF meetings.