This community of practice will ensure that ECA continues to place due emphasis on issues such as eradication of poverty as well as the need to place African countries on the path of sustainable economic growth, while accelerating the empowerment of women. African countries have made real effort to integrate the MDGs into their national development plans and budgets. However, given the current trends and contexts, with few exceptions, it is generally feared that Africa as a continent may not meet most of the MDG targets within the set timeframes. Hence one of the focus of this community of practice will be in ECA’s work on MDGs that will revolve around growth and poverty reduction, sustainable development and food security, gender and social development. Moreover major challenge for African countries is to reach and sustain high levels of economic growth. Key to reaching this objective are factors such as stable and conducive macroeconomic policies and access to development finance. This community of practice will also tackle these issues under this broad thematic strategy.