Ad Hoc Committee to Review

New Agenda for Development of Africa

PM Meeting

GENERAL ASSEMBLY BODY CREATED TO REVIEW UN’S AGENDA FOR AFRICAN

DEVELOPMENT IN 1990S HOLDS ORGANIZATIONAL SESSION

Assembly President Says Africa’s Development Daunting Challenge;

Review Should Clearly Identify Reasons for Agenda’s Limited Success

The strong political will of the African leadership for political and economic reforms combined with necessary international support would bring genuine change to Africa through the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the President of the General Assembly, Han Seung-soo (Republic of Korea), told the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole on the Final Review and Appraisal of the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s this afternoon, during its organizational session.

The United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF) was a political compact in which African countries reaffirmed their primary responsibility for the development of their countries and the international community committed itself to support Africa, he said.  The primary objectives of the New Agenda were the accelerated transformation, integration and diversification and growth of African economies, and to reduce their vulnerability to external shocks.

A final review and appraisal of UN-NADAF was called for in 2002.  It was clear that a decade after UN-NADAF had been adopted, the results had not been according to expectations.  He expected that the Ad Hoc Committee, during its deliberations, would clearly identify the reasons for that limited success.

He said in 2000, inspired by the vision of launching Africa on the path of sustainable growth and development at the beginning of the new millennium, African leaders had initiated action to search for a new approach to partnership for Africa's development and to ensure a strong commitment to African ownership of its development.  The result of their efforts, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), was now generally welcomed by the international community. The review and appraisal of UN-NADAF was timely, as it coincided with the process of elaboration of NEPAD.  The final review and appraisal should, thus, concentrate on the lessons learned from UN-NADAF that could benefit NEPAD.

Considering the development of Africa -- among "the most daunting challenges for humanity in the new millennium" -- as one of his priorities during the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly, the President also reported on his visit to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Senegal, four West African countries that provided models and offered hope for development.  He called upon the international community to devote more attention and resources to the "common task" of African development.  Continued progress on African development issues would do much to brighten the outlook for all of humankind in the twenty-first century, he said.

Nitin Desai, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said the final review of UN-NADAF took place against the background provided by the launching of NEPAD.  Highlighting findings from the evaluation of UN-NADAF by a 12-member panel of eminent personalities, which was based on a thorough canvassing of a broad cross section of stakeholders, he noted that, although the target for average real growth had been set at 6 per cent per annum, the growth rate throughout much of the decade had been about 3 per cent.  Official development assistance (ODA) had declined over the period by 43 per cent from $28.6 billion in 1990 to $16.4 billion in 2000.  Trade opportunities in Africa had not expanded as rapidly as in the rest of the world.

He said African countries had undertaken programmes of reform, but, in some cases, those programmes had had adverse consequences.  Some of the problems had been exacerbated by conflicts and civil strife.  The terrible AIDS pandemic in Africa gravely compromised the prospect for development.  He hoped that the lessons drawn from the independent evaluation would help in ensuring that NEPAD, which had full African ownership, would benefit from the exercise undertaken in NADAF. To extract those lessons was the task of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole.

The Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole was established by Assembly resolution 56/218 of 14 January.  The resolution dedicated 9 to 13 September and 7 to

9 October as the dates for the substantive meetings of the Committee.  A high-level plenary meeting of the Assembly would be held on 16 September to consider how to support NEPAD.

As those dates were conflicting with plenary meetings of the General Assembly and a possible commemoration of 11 September 2001, the representative of South Africa (on behalf of the Group of African States) proposed to hold the substantive session to three days between 23 and 27 September and from 7 to

11 October.  After a short debate, in which the representatives of the United States, Japan, Mexico and Spain (on behalf of the European Union) participated, the Ad Hoc Committee adopted this proposal, which was subject to approval by the General Assembly.

Addressing participation of observer States, intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a representative of the Secretariat’s special coordinator for Africa, Yvette Stevens, said over the past few years the United Nations had had a tradition of NGO involvement in its conferences.  The  UN-NADAF had given legislative mandate for their involvement, as well, as it had done for involvement of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and permanent observer States.  He expected the OAU to provide its own assessment.  He, therefore, recommended to the Ad Hoc Committee to invite NGOs, observer States and the OAU to participate in its work.

As the representatives of the United States and China needed more time to study the proposal, which they had just received, the discussion of the item was suspended to the substantive session of the Committee.

In other matters, the Ad Hoc Committee endorsed the President's appointment of Dumisani S. Kumalo (South Africa) from the Group of African States, Vijai K. Nambiar (India) from the Group of Asian States, and Jean de Ruyt (Belgium) from the Group of Western and Other States as its Vice-Presidents, as well as Marcel Fortuna Biato (Brazil) as its Rapporteur.