must make clear their views and jointly seek acceptance of these by the
E/CN.14/WP.1/63
international community. Their representatives in international discussions and negotiations should be fully acquainted with the harmonized views of the African countries and be supported by all possible means. The Conference recommends that the African countries should claim compensation for the reserve losses that may arise as a result of changes in the monetary arrange ments and ensure that their share of world reserve's does not fall. As regards the reform of the international monetary system, African countries should adopt the following broaJ common st?.nd: Decisions shculd be taken within
organizations where all the countries concerned are represented and particularly within the Group of Twenty of IMP; African countries should ensure that they participate effectively in the drawing up of an equitable monetary system;, the new system must give due regard tr the needs of the developing countries;
a new and more equitable formula for allocating quotas must be found; SDR facilities should be based on a formula different from that of Bretton Woods;
the new formula for the distribution of SDRs should take account not only of cases of individual conntries but also of the categories of countries depending on their position on the development ladder; voting rights should also be dissociated from quotas; SDRs should serve as the net-/ numeraire of the system and eventually replace gold and national currencies; SDR3 should be created, with regard for the specific requirements of the developing coun tries; it is necessary to insist on the creation, of a "link" to'ensure com pensatory financing for the development of the developing countries; the administration of the African share of SDRs should be left to the discretion of Governments of African countries; a portion of these SDRs could be used for suppliers' credit as part of the efforts to reduce, the debt burden of developing countries; the compensatory financing facilities of IMF should be adapted to meet the needs of developing countries for long-terra finance;
the arrangements for the creation and operation of buffer stocks should be extended to cover more primary products and adequate long-term financing should be provided. Lastly, the African countries advocate the establishment of efficient permanent machinery to ensure effective co-ordination of solutions for problems in the monetary, trade and financial fields in view of their
close interdependence, in which the developed countries and other developing countries would participate.
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Page 48
STJNKART AND CC"CLUSI0IT3':. ' .
106. The analysis in the -preceding paragraphs': despite the numerous gaps -in
the information available; nalces it possible to identify the following major, issues and probler.s which African countries should endeavour tu solve in +he..-Va!;ie>io.rk oi* international discussions or negotiation?:": (i) The annual rate of growtli per capica iii lyll was only 0«2 per cent
. ccTnpai'30. to 2o4 i)er cent in l?703■■ Both of these raiet; fall well . short 01 the minimum 3-5 per coat istiyulated in t.he Internat ionai(ii) Although there has been an improvement in the external balance
• ■ -for Africa*; countries as a group in the. pas'-fc few years,, only a
• ' ' -haiidful of thos'e countries could show- a surplus 0.1 ■their
' ',;'.-.'current external account at the end of the 1960sch Of all African coajitrissj only the iiibya-i Arab Republic recorded a surplus on its ; ' - current account in i?71 whersas in 19?0 there were three such ' ■ ■-countries ar.d i-: 1969
(iii). Wliila,'Afric^.U- sher.3 .in the total official net flow of external
" firiaiicial roncurces from DiC countries declined from 28 per cent
during the first half of the 19oOs to 22 per cent during the second half of thetbeads, there has heon a slight relative imprcverrieni; in• ' mure recent years0 .However, Africans share at the beginning'of the 1970c-was still significantly lower than'it was at the beginning of the 195'Js?
/(iv). Africa accounted for less, than one fifth of the World Bank group loan
"' - - corrciitmsnts in 197J-w~972c- .IDA, credits to Ai'ricE. a.-courx^d in.
1571*-1972 for one-third of its total lending ao compsxed v;ith about .mo thiirds ."or
(v) jPot DkO ccivttries as a group j the terms of official development loanc in 1071 hardeaod as corapared with 3 970?
(vi) The outflow of financial resources constitutes a significant component of the p?7!Yients of foreign exchange.-, tfhero Iiaa teen a strong rise i;i the African countriesc debt service payments in the past few years;
(vi:.) Toch:iiutf.I assistance, from bilateral (DA.C ooiu?ti*ies; and nriltilateral
sources constituted nearly one-third of all aid dipburssmarts to Africa in 1970;
(viii) In 1971 l^ss than one third of African countries had international
reservec for more than four months7 imports?> and in a nujnber of them . the reserves were lower at the end of the 1960s than at thebegirding of t.he deoadc0
107. In-recent years a number of a.pnraisals liave been made of the growth process in the developing countries-, At the international level; the third session of UNCTAD in 1972 carried forward the work started by the two
pr-evicur, sessions of tho Conference to identify the main bottlenecks to develop ment and to search for solutionso At the African level; the OAU Conference of Heads of State and Goverrxment in Addis Ababa :in Ha,y 1973 adopted a
Declaration on economic r.ndepe'u&ence aiid