91 E/ECA /CM. 9/5 countries and international financial institutions were willing to support the the programme financially and technically, they preferred to do so under traditional and direct bilateral ar­ rangements with African countries rather than through pledging conferences. It was also apparent that small-scale consultative conferences with limited topics or subject-matters would provide a better atmosphere for exchanges of views between donors and African beneficiaries on economic, technical and other issues re­ lated to the projects. cosequently, the idea of technical con­ sultative meetings, organized on a modal or subregional basis, emerged as a logical approach to the task of securing funds for the programme. 207. To date ECA has organized four technical consultative meet­ ings; another is planned fer North African, Eastern African and Indian Ocean island countries during the second half cf 1983. Le has also participated in a donors' conference organized by the Southern ·African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC). The net results of these meetings shew that $940 mil­ lion was mobilized through the meetines organized by ECA, at a cost of $0.4 million financed by the General Assembly, anc that about $1.3 billion was mobilized by the SA DCC meeting. 208. Besides the funds mobilized, the technical consultative meetings have (a) opened new channels of consultation between African countries 'and donors; (b) revealed that various donors have funded some transport and communications projects which were not included in the programme for the Decade, leading to an un­ derstatement of the total mobilization ·of resources; (c) revealed the total dependence of intergovernmental organizations respon­ sible for the implementation of regional and subreeicnal projects on grants, and their inability to contract loans; (d) enabled ECA to keep abreast of progress in the implementation of phase I; and (e) provided useful inputs for the preparation of the phase II programme. 