| NEPAD |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Tuesday, 22 January 2002 00:00 | |
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NEPAD is the New Economic Partnership for Africa Programme: details of how this scheme will help Africa.
NEPAD – The New Economic Partnership for African Development Excerpt from the NEPAD framework document, October 2002: “Economic conditions point to the need for African countries to pool their resources. We need to enhance regional development and economic integration to improve international competitiveness. The five sub-regional economic groupings of the continent must be strengthened.” The New Economic Partnership for Africa is a continental development strategy, created at the July 2001 summit of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) and encompassing previous economic initiatives, the Millennium Partnership for the Africa Recovery Programme, and the OMEGA Plan. What is NEPAD? 1. Political aspects NEPAD is an action plan to tackle the problems of Africa’s marginalisation, identified as poor infrastructure, economic decline, decreasing capacity and poor governance. Last October, nine African heads of state or government, along with top officials of six other African countries - known as the “implementation committee”- put the final touches onto a framework document that forms the basis for NEPAD. They call for African leaders to take responsibility for: · strengthening mechanisms for conflict management at regional and continental levels. · promoting democracy and human rights by creating clear standards of accountability. · developing the appropriate standards and targets for fiscal policies. · extending and revitalising education, technical training and health services. Tackling the spread of communicable diseases. · promoting the role of women. · building the capacity to enforce a legal framework. Two priority areas are identified as conditions for sustainable development. · peace, security and democracy – NEPAD will create early warning systems to address conflict, and strengthen Africa’s ability to prevent and resolve conflicts. The political and social vulnerabilities causing conflict will be tackled through strengthening the capacity of existing regional and sub-regional institutions to resolve conflict and tackle arms trafficking. · governance – Through NEPAD African leaders have committed to principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, and issues such as respect for human rights and the rule of law. Individual countries will take the lead in implementing poverty reduction programmes and enhancing economic and public financial management, although there will be a regional task forces to examine issues such provision of essential regional public goods, and harmonisation of economic and investment policies. The Heads of State Forum will meet regularly to tackle the task of promoting peace and security and to discuss progress made towards good governance and social reforms. The next meeting will be in March. It is hoped that framework agreements and a fixed timetable towards implementation will be secured at the G8 summit in June 2002. 2. Economic aspects Building infrastructure NEPAD recognises that Africa will not meet the international development goals. Poverty reduction and sustainable development will not be achieved without a substantial effort to develop its capacity to sustain growth at all levels. The action plan focuses on infrastructure and the provision of essential regional public goods: · transport – facilitating cross border movements of people and economic goods, increasing air and transport linkages. · energy – increasing access, developing solar and hydroelectric resources. · water – increasing access to safe adequate water supplies. · information and communications technology – increasing access to telephones, broadcasting and internet. · disease eradication – building a secure capacity for healthcare delivery and strengthening programmes for containing communicable diseases. · environmental preservation and provision of regional research capability. · promotion of African trade and investments. The new institutional framework for economic integration will be strengthened by the identification of common projects that are compatible with country and regional development programmes. Africa’s economic and investment policies and practices will also be harmonised. Capital Flows NEPAD also contains an initiative to mobilise Africa’s domestic and foreign resources, in recognition of the fact that a 7% annual growth rate is needed to meet the International Development Goals. · Debt relief – establishing an agreement for further debt relief and fixing relief as a proportion of fiscal revenue. · Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) – developing an ODA forum to formulate a charter on development and a common African position on development assistance. · Private capital flows – working on peace security and good governance to ensure increased flows, speeding up financial market integration and developing more private-public partnerships. · Market access – increasing agricultural productivity and the production, transportation and storage of food. Creating a regulatory framework for mining and resource extraction. · Manufacturing – increasing production of manufactured goods, developing new industries, establishing regional and national regulatory standards. · Exports – negotiating measures to facilitate market access for African products, publicise African exports. Promoting regional trade agreements and interregional trade liberalisation. · Lobbying the International Community – creating a forum in which African countries can speak collectively on structural adjustment, and lobby for enhanced technical assistance through the WTO. · Tariffs – improving access to the markets of industrialised countries for African products. NEPAD also calls for renegotiations of relationships with development partners and multi-lateral institutions. This includes concentrating on mechanisms for conflict prevention, accelerated debt reduction, facilitation of an agreement to get more medicines to Africa, and increasing ODA flows and investment in infrastructure. The aims of the project will be achieved by through task forces, which will formulate detailed action plans to be discussed at the Heads of State meeting in March 2002. A sub-regional framework, comprising representatives and experts from Africa’s governments, will also work on implementation. Progress on implementation of decisions will be reviewed through regular Head of States meetings. Particular attention will be given to identified priority areas: · Communicable diseases. · Information technology. · Debt reduction. · Access to Markets. Benefits · Establishes a credible voice that can represent all of Africa, and be representative of all the people of Africa. · Acknowledges many of Africa’s problems are regional and cannot be resolved unless states work together. · Strengthens and coordinates Africa’s existing regional institutions. · Constructively discusses Africa’s economic subordination, putting forward a powerful case for renegotiations of trade barriers, debt relief and inward investment. · Identifies the areas seen as the main obstacles to development from an African perspective and gives Africans the lead in solving these problems. The document also acknowledges that the international community’s commitments have not been translated into reality, and calls for more international engagement to create fair trade and to support development. · The auditing of aid projects will create a full picture of ODA in Africa, leading to greater donor coordination and encouraging strategic thinking in aid provision. Areas of concern: · Regional peace, democracy and good governance will only be achieved with full political cooperation and engagement. It is questionable whether the Heads of State forum will be able to form a common position on Africa. At the last forum heads of state from less than ¼ of Africa, and representatives from only 1/3 of Africa are present. · Implementation of the suggested sub-regional action plans will be impossible in areas such as the Great Lakes, the Gold Coast and the Horn of Africa. War and lack of border security provide a major investment to investment and infrastructure in these areas. · The document pledges “peace, democracy and human rights” in Africa, but issues such as promoting democratic participation, strengthening parliaments and civil society will need to be tackled in more detail in order for the plan to work. Can heads of state monitor the implementation of each other’s national strategies effectively? The success of the project ultimately depends on the quality of the detailed plans to be submitted to the Heads of State Forum in March. · NEPAD contains no concrete actions to be taken by the African peoples, no offer of organisational resources, and no civil society implementation plan. · NEPAD is a huge project. Many tasks tackled by the framework document can be tackled through institutions that already exist. Without streamlining, Africa may not be able to take the burden for implementing NEPAD without substantial funding. The framework document suggests setting up scores of action plans, committees and consultations, and the money spent on bureaucracy will be vast. Conclusion Development of political and economic union in Africa has proved to be the converse to the case of Europe. In Europe we enjoy a strong economic union, but with less political clout. In Africa the African Union (formerly the Organisation of African Unity) has existed since independence, but regional and continental economic integration is an entirely new and uncharted area. NEPAD is an ambitious plan. Many of its aims are long-term and are set out in very broad language. Success depends on sustained political commitment. The devil will be in the detail worked out at the national and sub-regional levels and monitored by the Heads of State Forum. The case for a more generous approach to Africa is so strong that the initiative has the potential to make a huge impact just from speaking out and demanding concerted action, especially in the priority areas. Stopping the spread of disease, securing more debt relief, strengthening Africa’s export markets and increasing access to information technology are important, but achieving peace and democracy in Africa are prerequisites for NEPAD to fulfill its aims.
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