UN General Assembly
2003

It should be noted that, while these meetings had the merit of having been convened, unfortunately they did not respond to the urgent and enormous expectations of the continent. In this regard, there is a need to ensure consistency in global economic governance through the strengthening of cooperation among the international organizations and of the compatibility of their decisions. It is only thus that the excessive marginalization of Africa can be alleviated, because this is the appropriate way to bring the promises of increased official development assistance to fruition. Similarly, it is important to increase the flow of direct foreign investment into Africa. Furthermore, given the limited results achieved by current debt-alleviation programmes — the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in particular — we must now recognize that the ultimate solution lies in the outright cancellation of the debt, the servicing of which is consuming the greater part of the budgets of African countries and fuelling capital flight. There is also a need for Africa’s trade partners fully to comply with their commitments, in particular by improving the