AT PANEL DISCUSSION, AFRICAN LEADERS CONSIDER WAYS TO SUPPORT NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Panel Discussion (PM)

AT PANEL DISCUSSION, AFRICAN LEADERS CONSIDER WAYS TO SUPPORT

NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT

Participants Include Presidents

Of Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal

At a panel discussion this afternoon held in conjunction with the high-level General Assembly plenary meeting to consider how to support the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), leaders from five African countries identified key issues for NEPAD’s implementation, stressing the need for partnerships at all levels.

[The New Partnership for Africa’s Development, established by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) at its thirty-seventh ordinary session, held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 9 to 11 July 2001, is an integrated framework that links the issue of peace and security with governance and development.  An African-owned and African-led initiative, NEPAD succeeds the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF) as the policy framework for Africa's development.]

Mark Malloch Brown, Chairman of the United Nations Development Group and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), moderated the panel discussion, saying that the purpose of the discussion was to deepen understanding on how to move to the implementation stage.  

In an opening statement, the President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo said the key word in NEPAD was partnership.  Although NEPAD was an African-led initiative, African leaders realized that partners in the true sense of the word were needed in implementing the programme.  There could never be enough genuine partners to join in the implementation of the New Partnership.  

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki said the Secretary-General’s report on the final review and appraisal of the UN-NADAF provided the framework on how to respond to partnerships and how to implement programmes at both the national and regional levels.  How to organize was the major question.  The process would raise many challenges, for example coordination on the question of health.  Given the capacity constraints on the African continent, African countries would be unable to deal with parallel initiatives on the same issue.  It was a complex situation that must be dealt with.

Algeria’s President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said NEPAD encompassed an implementation strategy.  The twin objectives of continental integration and of

Africa’s integration into the world required an inclusive approach.  The international community’s inputs should fit into the framework of priorities, plans and programmes defined by NEPAD.  The mechanisms set up by Africa were in need of political, technical and financial support.  Partnership should help Africa adopt policies and secure an environment conducive to the expansion of private investment and the emergence of a class of entrepreneurs committed to the productive sector.

Saying that Africans needed to better understand NEPAD, Abdoulaye Wade, the President of Senegal said that NEPAD did not belong to any one leader.  He noted certain changes to the priorities determined by heads of State.  Partners should respect what was in the NEPAD document.  Regarding financing, NEPAD called for partnership, not aid.  It was in the interest of the international community to have Africa as a partner, participating in international commerce.  Implementation was not possible, however, without better organization.  Commissions should be established to deal with different topics, for example commerce, good governance and health.  Human resources must be mobilized to deal with the partnership.  The process of elaborating NEPAD had been finished.  It was now time to implement.  Implementation at the continent level would be difficult, however.  Feasible projects must be elaborated.

Ahmed Maher, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt, stressed that Africa asked the international community to support the initiative out of the belief that the good of Africa was the good of the rest of the world.  Stressing partnerships, he said there were a number of programmes already in existence.  In the context of a truly African initiative, action was necessary to avoid wasting resources and avoid duplication.

Representatives of various United Nations agencies also made opening remarks to the panel.  Ruud Lubbers, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the first priority area of NEPAD, peace and security, included the issue of refugees.  The big numbers of African refugees were important to the development of Africa itself.  In post-conflict situations, it was a responsibility of governments, the World Bank and the regional banks to involve refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in development.  That, however, was not happening.  Development was also possible through local integration.  Refugees were languishing in camps in often remote areas of Africa.  It must be possible to organize development programmes in those remote areas, involving the refugees and the local people.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, supported the notion of a symbiotic relationship between the objectives of the NEPAD and Millennium Development Goals.  Africa was home to some 43 per cent of the world’s child deaths, for instance, and had an enormous problem with HIV/AIDS.  UNICEF, as part of the United Nations country teams, pursued work in support of the Millennium Development Goals.  Six of the eight Goals were, after all, child related.  She suggested moving forward in a coherent way and avoiding duplications.  She commended HIV/AIDS and girls’ education as priority areas for system-wide support.

Population was one of the themes that had not been directly addressed by NEPAD, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Obaid, said.  Men and women in African villages constituted the greatest hope for change.  UNFPA was proud to work in Africa, which was where the bulk of its resources were spent.  UNFPA saw the convergence between NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals.  She looked forward to the articulation of NEPAD in the social sector.  The spectrum of issues must be expanded so that they would be mutually reinforcing.  For maximum impact, resources must be pooled and programmes realigned for NEPAD to have “quick wins”.  When NEPAD was taken on board formally by the United Nations system, she hoped it would serve as a lens for joint activities.  Both international and domestic resources must be made available in a stable way to allow for implementation and planning.  Leadership on culturally sensitive issues was needed.  Giving birth must not be a death sentence but a time of joy.

Mr. Samba of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he had worked in Africa for four decades and could say that NEPAD was making a difference.  All NEPAD leaders were elected leaders.  He agreed that the time had passed when an agency or country could act alone.  Partnership was needed.  Flag-raising at the country level was wasteful and counterproductive.  WHO was the international coordinator on health.  WHO had also participated in the formulation of the health aspect of NEPAD.

In the interactive discussion that followed, representatives from several countries described the assistance they were intending to deliver and made some suggestions on implementation.  The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy declared his intention to have official development assistance at 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product at the European level by 2006.  The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, said his country had committed itself to spend a billion pounds in aid in Africa by 2006.

France’s representative, noting that next year’s G-8 meeting would take place in France, suggested that NEPAD establish a working group to gather ideas and proposals leading to a description of the instruments that might make NEPAD a reality.  Questions were asked about the level of participation in specific programmes by partners, whether governmental, civil society or private sector partners.

Overall, representatives agreed that the challenge now was implementation in which the Africa-ownership must be preserved and developed.  Some representatives stressed the need to engage civil society in the NEPAD process and deepen awareness of NEPAD among Africa’s citizens.  Germany’s representative said she had had many contacts with African parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations, who saw NEPAD as government driven.  NEPAD was a political programme and less a financial instrument.  Parliamentarians must be better informed about the NEPAD process. 

Many speakers in the discussion stressed the need to implement the New Partnership at the national and regional levels.  Denmark’s representative said the concept of African-ownership of NEPAD must be preserved and developed.  African-ownership was a precondition for NEPAD’s success.  It was time to implement policies and demonstrate to ordinary African citizens NEPAD’s value.  The United States representative highlighted the convergence between United States initiatives for Africa and NEPAD.  The United States looked forward to working within the NEPAD process towards common goals.

A representative of the World Bank requested clarification on how NEPAD and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers process could reinforce each other.  The value of NEPAD was additional political clout for sectoral efforts.  The question was to ensure that capacity existed at the sectoral level to ensure a method of engagement with the international community and the bilateral donors. 

The representative of the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA), stressed that her organization had been associated with NEPAD from the very first day.  The ECA presided over regional consultations held every year at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, gathering some 20 United Nations agencies to discuss the way to respond in a coordinated way to the needs of NEPAD.  The ECA was committed to make sure that in regional consultations, United Nations agencies would speak with a single voice and would avoid weaknesses of the past.

The representative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said agriculture was in crisis in Africa.  Few governments had given adequate resources to the agriculture sector, and donor support had declined.  Noting that a Common African Agricultural Development Programme had been prepared, he said NEPAD needed more than a programme.  Agriculture had to be put on the map as a key sector for poverty reduction and economic growth.  A new image of Africa was also necessary to attract donor funds and private investments.

Summarizing comments from the floor, Mr. Malloch Brown asked how the specialized agencies could coordinate at the regional level to make NEPAD succeed.  Working within the NEPAD framework, how could the United Nations system engage with NEPAD on issues such as reproductive health and refugees?

Addressing the questions asked, President Mbeke of South Africa said that involvement and participation by civil society and the private sector in all processes was important, and there was no obstruction of any government against it.  The problem was one of the capacity of African civil society to organize itself.  Multilateral organizations that worked with a variety of non-governmental organizations could assist in facilitating the participation of civil society partners.

On the question of what to do next, he said regional organizations were crucial in implementation of programmes.  NEPAD did not replace existing institutions, but depended on them to succeed.  The question was how regional organizations could interact in a coordinated way with everybody in the world who was interested in one particular issue.  Regarding the peer review, he said it must be credible and not subject to political pressure.  The technical aspects for a peer review were in place, but in order to give it weight, an element of eminent persons was needed.  The whole mechanism would be in place by the end of the year, he estimated.  The question of involvement of refugees in reconstruction had been discussed in the context of handling post-conflict situations.  The available documentation had not raised the matter of reproductive health in a proper way, as it certainly was part of discussions.

The partnership being proposed was not only with the United Nations system but with the entire international community, President Bouteflika of Algeria said.  Implementation could not take place in a few weeks, he warned.  Africa was in a stage of apprenticeship and expected to be given the time to make things perfect.  The need for coherence was very relevant.  Mechanisms had been established for peer review, the reform of peace and security mechanisms, the reform of education and health and reform of justice.  Greater efforts should be made to include scientists and parliamentarians in the partnership.  A favourable environment for investment must be established.

Never before had the international community expressed so much interest in Africa, President Wade of Senegal said.  The implementation of the peer review was not an easy thing and would take courage to implement.  Concepts such as good governance must be defined, he said.  What were “good elections”? for example.  What constituted civil society?  There were several regional plans of action, but no agenda.  Regarding refugees, he congratulated UNHCR for its work in Senegal.  On health issues, Senegal had launched a project with a French non-governmental organization in a remote area using telemedicine that had produced remarkable results.  It was up to Africa to define institutions at the regional level.

Africa knew what it wanted, Mr. Maher of Egypt said.  What could be done to help Africa carry out its own plans was not the issue.  Those who wanted to help must be clear about how they wanted to help.

Speaking from the floor as a representative of an African country, Mr. Mosisili, the Prime Minister of Lesotho said he was pleased that the discussion had emphasized the value of partnership.  The stress should be on a partnership of equals, however, and not a partnership of teacher and pupil or master and slave.  On capacity-building, much had been made of a lack of capacity of African governments and the inability to access funding from international organizations.  He hoped that more sensitivity could be brought to bear when addressing real-life problems such as clean water and sanitation, for example.  He agreed with the “craze” about civil society.  Who was and who was not civil society?  Elected leaders were sometimes bypassed simply because they held office.

In closing remarks, Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP, stressed that major resource transfers to Africa were required to meet NEPAD and Millennium Development Goal objectives.  He said when problems of good governance, education and health had been addressed there were still the infrastructure challenges of Africa to be addressed. The role of enhanced official development assistance levels and aggressive encouragement of foreign direct investment to Africa were a crucial component.  NEPAD was about good governance and investment in people, but also about meeting the challenge of the lagging infrastructure of Africa. 

President Wade of Senegal, in closing remarks, proposed a mechanism in which producers of commodities, the peasants and farmers, would not immediately suffer the reduction in prices on the world market.  The deficit between former and new prices should be spread out over a period of five to 10 years.

Concluding the panel, President Mbeki thanked participants for their desire to see NEPAD succeed.  It was indeed, a new world.  The process was testing the capacity of Africans.  Much needed to be done to improve the capacity to deliver at the level expected of them.  Capacity-building was an important question.  It was important not to lose patience.  All were united in the view of the need to act together to reach the intended goal.  Institutional walls had to be broken.  Victories must be collective and not individual.  There had been no pretense of working from a blank slate.  The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers process might need to be looked at.  The African continent was determined to move the process forward. 

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