Finance Minister Ahmed Shide co – chairs 20th Ministerial Meeting of Horn of Africa Initiative

Addis Ababa, April 19, 2024 (FBC) – Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance of Ethiopia, and current Chair of the Horn of Africa Initiative (HOAI) co-chaired the 20th Ministerial meeting of HOAI along with Victoria Kwakwa, Regional Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa in Washington DC on the sidelines of the World Bank IMF spring meetings.

Ministers of Finance of the Horn of Africa region and development partners including the World Bank, AfDB, EU, Germany, and the UK attended the meeting. 

Further,  the Finance Minister welcomed the growing interest from additional partners, including the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the Saudi Fund for Development, special envoys and representatives from the United States and Japan. He extended a call for some of the observers to formalize their engagement through the HoAI Participation Framework.

Five years into the implementation, Minister Shide commended the success of this resource mobilization effort while stressing the importance of furthering these endeavors.

The discussions also delved into strategies for bolstering the financing of the remaining lending pipeline, which includes integrating proposals from South Sudan. 

He encouraged continued resource mobilization efforts, including topping-up funding for the MDTF as a priority to continue the momentum. He stated, “The HoAI original pipeline of projects is yet to be fully funded compared to the needs. Thus, we need to redouble our resource mobilization efforts.”

The Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI), established in 2019, serves as a collaborative platform involving countries in the Horn of Africa, including Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Sudan. With a primary focus on promoting economic integration, the initiative targets priority areas such as infrastructure development, trade facilitation, investment, human development, and resilience.