Minister of International Development has meetings in Washington and New York

International Development Minister Hilde F. Johnson is in Washington DC today. She is attending a meeting with other international development ministers, a group of African finance ministers, the President of the World Bank, Mr James D. Wolfensohn, and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr Horst Köhler.

The meeting is being arranged by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the purpose is to improve the dialogue between the poorest African countries and the management of the international finance institutions.

Ms Johnson will also be attending a high-level meeting under the auspices of the UN in New York on 29-30 October. The meeting is a follow-up to the summit on "Financing for Development", which was held in Monterrey, Mexico, last year.

Ms Johnson will be one of two representatives of Western countries chairing a roundtable discussion on the progress of the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, of which a major goal is to halve the proportion of poor people by 2015.

Press contact: Per Egil Selvaag, tel: + 47 90 04 56 51