Following the Development Partner Consultation in June 2007, the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) is preparing for its next milestone meeting. President Bozizé and Prime Minister Doté will present the country’s first poverty reduction strategy on October 26 during a round table meeting in Brussels. Many international organizations and donor countries will be present to discuss development and reconstruction plans for the years 2008 to 2010.

The conference is organized by the Central African government, with technical support from the European Commission, the UNDP and the World Bank.

Main focus will be the presentation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The PRSP is used as an important benchmark tool for poverty reduction by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and many other organizations and governments. A document that has been almost four years in the making, it lays out CAR’s macroeconomic and social policies to reduce poverty and promote growth, while analyzing the external financing needs.

The PRSP approach, initiated by the World Bank and the IMF in 1999, results in a comprehensive country-specific strategy for poverty reduction. It aims to provide the crucial link between national public actions, donor support, and the results needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), centered on halving poverty between 1990 and 2015.

The Central African Republic is one of the world’s poorest countries, with almost 70 percent of the population living on less than 1 dollar a day.. Social indicators are extremely low. CAR ranks 172 out of 177 countries in the 2006 on the Human Development Index.

The Round Table is a continuation of a series of important milestones achieved since 2006 to improve development in the impoverished country. The last such meeting took place in Brussels on June 26, 2007 – the first of its kind since the free public elections in CAR in 2005.

The conference follows the successful decision of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on September 28 to qualify CAR for debt relief under the ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Country’ (HPIC) initiative. The country now has a chance to be relieved from US$856 million of foreign debt, which will help the government to fight poverty.

Additional information is available on http://www.car-round-table.net