PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL ADVISER ON AFRICA

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL ADVISER ON AFRICA

The Secretary-General had decided to appoint a panel to advise him on broad issues of African development and, particularly, on the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Ibrahim A. Gambari, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, announced at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.  (The NEPAD is broadly Africa’s own home-grown plan for the continent’s economic recovery and good governance).

The panel would advise on what African States were doing on their own to implement the initiative, and the response of the international community to help them meet the objectives of NEPAD, particularly in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure development and market access.  A formal announcement, including the names of the panel members, would be made later this year, Mr. Gambari said.

He also announced that the General Assembly would hold a daylong debate on Africa on Wednesday, 15 October, with two reports of the Secretary-General forming the basis for the discussions.  The reports are “New Partnership for Africa’s Development:  progress in implementation and international support” (document A/58/254) and “Implementation of the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa” (document A/58/352).

The first report highlighted the actions taken by African countries in the implementation of the Partnership, as well as support of the international community, including the United Nations system.  The highlight of the report, stated Mr. Gambari, was that official development assistance to Africa increased in the past two years, from $17.73 billion in 2001 to about $18.62 billion in 2002.  Despite the modest increase, the fact was that the chances of meeting the Millennium Development Goals appeared to be slim.  The challenges facing the African States were real, he added.

“On the plus side”, with regard to the Secretary-General’s second report, he said many conflicts in Africa were now being resolved or had been resolved.  In Angola, peace was irreversible; and there was progress in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Burundi.  Just this morning an interim government had been installed in Liberia.  There was also peace now in Sudan.  But despite all those positive developments, the bigger challenge was maintaining the peace in countries emerging from conflict.  The NEPAD should, therefore, be viewed in that context, he said.  It was an African-owned, African-grown and African-led initiative, by which African States were saying that, for a change, they wanted to take ownership of their problems.  They were taking steps to implement development programmes and urging the international community to assist them in that effort.

Mr. Gambari noted some of the progress that had been made so far since the initiative was launched.  A peer review mechanism had been established by which States would voluntarily have their economic and political performances monitored by other African States.  An eminent persons group, established to lay the parameters for the peer review, was being sworn in.  Two countries were prepared to have their governments’ performance reviewed before the end of this year.  In other areas, development partners were also ready to review programmes put forward by African States for the development of agriculture and infrastructures.  “But the bottom line is that Africans are saying ‘we want to take ownership of our problems.  We’re calling on the international community to help us’”, he said.

Mr. Gambari hoped a positive resolution would emanate from tomorrow’s General Assembly debate, followed by concrete actions from African governments, the United Nations system and the international community at large.  He announced that there would be a panel discussion on “Capital flows to Africa:  Potentials for Financing New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)” to be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber Wednesday, 15 October, from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.  He commented that the issue was whether or not more capital was flowing out of, and not into, Africa, and what steps should be taken to reverse the trend to make resources available for Africa’s development.

He observed that since the Office of the Special Adviser, which he headed, was established last May, it had produced the two reports which would form the basis of the Assembly’s debate.  It had also established a Web site to disseminate information about African development, meetings and conferences.

During a question-and-answer session, a correspondent commented that Transparency International, a non-governmental organization, had showed, in a report published last week, that basic corruption was on the increase in a number of African countries.  That issue was considered a central tenet of NEPAD, the correspondent said, and asked how disappointed the Under-Secretary-General was about the report.

Mr. Gambari said African governments had “taken the bull by the horns” with the establishment of the peer review mechanism as part of NEPAD.  It was a bold step, he said, adding that he did not know of any region in the world where governments had permitted others to review their performance.  It was too early to pass judgement on the mechanism as only 16 African countries had signed onto it and two had said they would permit their performance to be monitored.  “I believe that African States were moving in the right direction”, he said.

The review was voluntary, he told the correspondent in response to further questions.  “You can’t compel governments to allow their performance to be peer-reviewed.”  The important thing was to ensure that there were benefits for the review -- for the countries permitting the exercise, and what the development partners were willing to offer.

In response to questions about what African governments were devoting to the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, he said many States of the African Union had taken an initiative in holding a special summit on the crisis, at which it had been decided that one percent of their budgets should be devoted to improving their health infrastructures.

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