AfriCatalyst, a leading pan-African development consultancy firm based in Dakar, Senegal, in partnership with The Center for Global Development (CGD), a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, DC, is to organize a hybrid event to discuss and share expertise on the role of SDRs in spurring Africa’s economic recovery.

In August 2021, the IMF board approved the largest general allocation of IMF’s SDRs in the IMF history, amounting to $650 billion, of which African countries received a total of $33 billion in line with their quota shares.

The G20 members agreed on the importance of reallocating $100 billion worth of SDRs to low-income countries (LICs), small island developing states and the most vulnerable middle-income countries. Against this backdrop, different mechanisms have been proposed with an aim of rechanneling SDRs to finance Africa’s recovery.

The “Rechanneling SDRs to accelerate Africa’s Development” event seeks to further discussion at a critical juncture in Africa’s economic recovery following multiple shocks including COVID-19 and climate and food crises. This event will catalyze the conversation on innovative financing options for African countries, notably through re-channeling SDRs to vulnerable African economies to finance economic recovery.

The event is expected to bring different persons including Avinash Persaud – Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados, Daouda Sembene – CEO, AfriCatalyst, David McNair – Executive Director for Global Policy, The ONE Campaign, Hassatou Diop – Vice-President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer, African Development Bank, H.E. Oulimata Sarr – Minister of Economy of Senegal (TBC), Phil Stevens – Head of International Finance Institutions, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, Mark Plant – Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development, and Vera Songwe – Chairwoman, Board of Directors of Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (TBC).

It will be moderated by Maggie Mutesi who is the managing director of Mansa Media.