The IMF and World Bank will convene in Morocco on Monday for the first time in 50 years. Pressure is mounting on these institutions to adapt in order to better assist developing countries that are suffering from debt and climate change.
Every three years, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank host their annual meeting of finance ministers and governors of central banks outside their Washington headquarters.
It was originally scheduled to take place in 2021 in Marrakesh in southern Morocco, but the Covid epidemic caused the event to be postponed twice.
The authorities decided the event could proceed despite a strong earthquake that struck the area south of Marrakesh last month and left roughly 3,000 people dead.
The last time the IMF and World Bank met in Africa was in 1973, when Kenya hosted the gathering and other countries were still governed by colonial powers.
A half-century later, the continent still faces many difficulties, including war, a string of military takeovers, extreme poverty, and natural calamities.
