The Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for the Portuguese Speaking Countries in Africa

The five African countries with Portuguese as the official language constituted a “regional” community with the designation of Países Africanos de Lingua Official Portuguesa (PALOP). The PALOP include the following countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Princípe. Geographically apart, the PALOP countries do not meet some basic criteria that would classify them into a typical economic region. However, they share common pre-independence histories that bind the community to a common official language, the Portuguese and have a socio-political cooperation agreement that provides an overall framework for their collaboration.

The five African countries with Portuguese as the official language constituted a “regional” community with the designation of Países Africanos de Lingua Official Portuguesa (PALOP). The PALOP include the following countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Princípe. Geographically apart, the PALOP countries do not meet some basic criteria that would classify them into a typical economic region. However, they share common pre-independence histories that bind the community to a common official language, the Portuguese and have a socio-political cooperation agreement that provides an overall framework for their collaboration.

The PALOP’s governments capacity to manage macroeconomic policies conducive to economic development, growth and poverty reduction, associated with sound and efficient financial and debt management is still not adequate. To collectively address this capacity challenge the PALOP decided to undertake an initiative of establishing the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for the Portuguese Speaking Countries in Africa (IGEF), which aims to contribute to the development and strengthening of their capacity in macroeconomic, debt and financial management and requested the Foundation’s support.

In December 2004, the ACBF Executive Board approved a grant of US$ 2,000,000 (Two Million United States Dollars) to support the implementation of the training program in macroeconomic and financial management of the PALOP countries through the IGEF.