A Consultative Group (CG ) meeting aimed at enhancing further partnership between Ethiopia and donors' community is scheduled to be held on 7 and 8 December here in Addis.

The Ethiopian Government, the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) jointly organized the CG meeting expected to be attended by significant number of donor agencies around the world.

Briefing reporters here on Thursday State minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr. Mulu ketsela, UNDP Country Representative Samual Nyambi and World Bank Country Director Ishac Diwan said the fourth CG meeting would be a forum for long term solutions on Poverty.

The officals said mutual accountability and enhanced partnership requires the active donor agencies' group involvement to turn the vision outlined in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in to a tangible reality.

Support for the PRSP and harmonization of donor practices are the two dimensions which the meeting would address to enhancing policy dialogue, high technical assistance and better finance.

The support and aligning international development assistance around PRSP would help, among others, increase development assistance to 20 US Dollars per capita against the existing 15 US Dollars.

The focus of the third SG meeting held in 1996 was in the investment programs of health and education.

It was noted by the officials that despite exogenous factor that has affecting Ethiopia recurrently, the performances of the education, health and agriculture sectors were encouraging.

In connection with the meeting, food aid appeal would be made for the drought hit people in the country.

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