As part of its efforts to enhance the economic and social development of its member countries, the Islamic Development Bank will organize, at the Bank’s headquarters in Jeddah on 18th Dhul Qa’ada 1428H (28th November 2007), a donors roundtable on the financing of the Taoussa dam project (Mali) and Kandadji dam program (Niger) which total cost is estimated at respectively US$ 300 m and US$ 680m.

The meeting, which will be graced with presence of the Prime Ministers of both countries, will be a follow-up to a meeting organized on 2nd Shaaban 1426H (6th September 2005) at the IDB headquarters in Jeddah, which had recommended, among others, that a second meeting be held as soon as the technical studies for both projects are completed in order to finalize the financing plan of the two dams.

The agenda of the meeting will focus mainly on the presentation of the two projects to development partners so as to mobilize the funds needed to implement them.

The projects perfectly fit in both countries’ strategic poverty reduction programs and, when completed, would help restore food self-sufficiency in the region and thus improve the peoples’ living conditions.

Owing to the projects’ importance for the economic and social development of both Mali and Niger, the meeting will be attended by a score of multilateral and bilateral development financing institutions.