Gordon Brown to meet African leaders ahead of G20

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet African leaders next Monday to discuss their concerns over the effects of the global downturn on their economies.   The news was announced at the meeting of African leaders held in the Tanzanian capital Dar-es-Salaam this week.   The Prime Minister will chair the G20 global summit being held in London in April to determine how to respond to the crisis, but South Africa will be the only African nation represented there.   As part of Africa's efforts to engage the G20, and a follow up to the Dar-es-Salaam conference, a team of African leaders, including Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, are scheduled to meet Gordon Brown on 16 March to discuss the resolutions of the forum.   At the conference, the managing director of the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warned that African countries risked being the "innocent bystanders" to the worldwide recession.   Western nations had already fallen behind, even before the crisis she said, on their pledges to double aid to developing countries made at the Gleneagles summit in 2005.   Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has warned that the rapidity of the slowdown will hit Africa hard. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Tuesday that world growth would be negative this year.   Less than a year ago, the IMF forecast economic growth of 6.7 percent for sub-Saharan Africa in 2009, but has now more than halved that figure to about 3 percent.   "Even though the crisis has been slow in reaching Africa's shores, we all know it is coming and its impact will be severe," he said.   The IMF says that 15 of the 21 countries which it judges most vulnerable to the crisis are in Africa.     *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *