The first ever meeting of the African Committee of 10 (C10) began in Cape Town on Friday, with South Africa's Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, calling for "equity and change", in an environment where wealthy countries have found ways to "dig themselves out" of economic recession, while African nations "remain trapped in a cycle of poverty".

The list of concerns was lengthy, as the effects of the global downturn could be measured in almost all of the economies represented at the meeting, attended by African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

"We are living through intense liquidity pressures as our domestic banking sector battles to secure the finance to on-lend. Significant changes to financial regulation must be undertaken," said Manuel.

He stated that many countries were witnessing the drying up of remittance flows, which had, over the past number of years, been a reliable source of finance, which offsets impacted the skills drain.

"We are seeing the first wave of unemployment as many foreign direct investors scale back or shut down their operations," he noted.

A decline in official development aid flows to support, amongst other things, the delivery of the Millennium Development Goal's was likely, and Manuel said that already there was a cumulative shortfall of $240-billion on the Gleneagles commitments.

"Many of our countries are witnessing significant outflows of capital as recent investors retreat to square their positions in their domestic markets," he stated.

He added that, increasingly, African states were encountering significant fiscal pressures as revenue sources dried up, as expenditures rose to meet the most elementary levels of service provision, and as retaining expenditure levels in the face of significantly reduced economic growth became a battle.

"We are witnessing that the export markets, developed with enormous sacrifice are suddenly closed to imports from our countries, as a result of falling consumer demand and increased protectionism," said Manuel. While adding that at the same time, African countries were seeing aggressive marketing of products into their markets.

"Often, these imports bypass the customs system through which we might collect some revenue as a respite. The absence of the conclusion of a development round accentuates this problem," he reiterated, emphasising the increased need for resolution with regard to the Doha development round, which now entered its eighth year.

Manuel indicated that recent developments in sectors such as tourism were already in decline as the numbers of tourists rapidly diminished.

"We have not yet recovered from the severe impact of high food and fuel prices that we have lived through over the past 15 months," added Manuel.

He opened the discussions by noting that the C10 must evaluate every aspect of what the member countries do, as well as each institution that took decisions and affected African countries, and battle for a fairer, more equitable world, and an "opportunity to deliver to our citizens that which they deserve".

The deliberation would allow those in attendance to take stock of the impact of the current economic recession on Africa, and explore actions derived from the observations that would inform the African Heads of State, as well as make a case for governance reform in the multilateral economic institutions for enhanced African participation.

Serving on the committee were Finance Ministers from South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon and Tanzania, as well as Central Bank Governors representing Botswana, Kenya, Algeria, West African States and Central African States. South Africa served as chair of the first meeting of the C10 this year.

The C10 was convened by the heads of the African Development Bank, and other organisations, following a meeting of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in November in Tunis. The meeting agreed upon the establishment of the committee to develop an African response to the global financial crisis, and issues on the G20 agenda.