For decades, the world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fuelled by ever-increasing inequality and debt, both financially and environmentally, Aboa-Bradwell said.

The CDD expects the financial crisis could make governments more aware of the interconnections of contemporary global economies and thus, not underestimate the potentially devastating effects that a collapse of developing countries' economies could have on the rest of the world, she said.

She urged international financial institutions to act more promptly and transparently to meet the ever-growing needs of developing countries, especially the much-needy African ones.

The African Development Bank should play a stronger role as a central actor in African economic development with the assistance, rather than the overarching control, of the World Bank, she said.

The CDD said that Brown's call for more African countries to be involved in the G20 should be translated into tangible initiatives.

Aboa-Bradwell said that there was a risk that these promises would "remain mere rhetorical exercises" especially "given the surfacing self-interest Western and other rich countries are showing in the face of the crisis."

A green global economy, which is to be highlighted at the G20, is expected to bring more investors to Africa. This would, she said, allow African national policies to be oriented toward sustainable development.

The CDD is joining other environmental and development organizations to participate in a campaign, called Put People First, to urge the G20 to create an economy based on the fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)