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The Committee of Ten
The Committee of Ten that is they name they want to be known by.
Well who are they you ask.
Trevor Manuel addressed the first meeting of the committee, his opening remarks can be found here. The Committee of Ten is basically a grouping of the African finance ministers and central bank governors.
In his remarks at the meeting Uncle Trev noted that 'This Committee arises from a meeting of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors convened in Tunis on 12 November 2008 by our 3 Pan-African institutions - the African Union, the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa'.
He then went further to define what it is that they do and in his words 'At a formal level, our remit is fairly simple - firstly, to take stock of the impact of the current economic recession on Africa; secondly, to explore such actions derived from the observations that would inform the African Heads of State and thirdly, to make a case for governance reform in the multilateral economic institutions for enhanced African participation. Essentially, we are charged with ensuring that the African voice in global economic affairs is amplified'.
This meeting was covered by the various news outlets and this is what they had to say about it. BUA News the Government news outlet noted that the meeting dealt with the severe liquidity problems and that even the domestic banking sector, which is relatively stable, was having difficulty in securing finance.
The Mail and Guardian came in with the headline 'Manuel: Africa to feel pain of crisis for years'. They reported that Uncle Trev had had said that there will be strain on the African region for at least five years due to the global crash.
The Committee of Ten meeting follows an African Development Bank meeting which set up two funds to help us out of the crisis. The funds are to be allocated on a first come first paid basis. The two funds would come to a total of 2.5 billion dollars part of which would be used for the purposes of temporary liquidity injections.
Business Day followed this story from the perspective of the African Development Bank and noted that they expected growth to slow from 5.1% to around 4.5% and that the funds were designed to prop up falling capital inflows as other countries withdrew their money to keep house at home.
The problem with the financial crisis is that it has altered the budgets that were drawn up pre-crisis. iAfrica has an article about the benefits of planning a budget and sticking to it. Justmoney says that if you keep on top of your budget, and have a decent savings account then when the crisis passes you will be in a better position than if you just get swept away with it, and don't keep track of where you are.