SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PANEL TO STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PANEL TO STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL

SUPPORT FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN

NEW YORK, 20 July -- International support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African development road map, will be strengthened by an international panel of eminent economists, development practitioners and academics newly appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Special Adviser on Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, said at a New York press briefing today.  The Secretary-General’s Advisory Panel on International Support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is headed by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the former Commonwealth Secretary-General and President of the World Wide Fund for Nature.  It has been created to advise Secretary-General Kofi Annan on global support for NEPAD.

The 13-member panel includes the noted economist, Jagdish Bhagwati; former International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Michel Camdessus; Anne Kristin-Syndes, the former Minister of Cooperation and Development for Norway; Dr. Richard Jolly, the former Deputy Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, the former Finance Minister of Ghana who currently heads the African Development Policy Ownership Initiative; and Cyril Ramaphosa, a former leader of the South African anti-apartheid movement and past chair of the country’s Black Economic Empowerment Commission.

The panel will monitor the scope and progress of international support for NEPAD and advise Mr. Annan on ways to expand and strengthen global partnerships for Africa’s development goals.  The United Nations, Mr. Annan told African leaders at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa earlier this month, “will remain your firm advocate and your faithful partner” in accelerating African development efforts and reaching the ambitious poverty-reduction targets contained in the Millennium Development Goals.

New Reports Highlight Progress

The advisory panel is among a number of initiatives the United Nations is undertaking to promote NEPAD internationally.  Spearheading these efforts is the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, headed by Under-Secretary-General Gambari.  New reports issued by the Special Adviser highlight progress in three critical areas of the NEPAD programme -- increasing capital flows to Africa, integrating NEPAD priorities into Africa’s national development strategies, and strengthening cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries (“South-South cooperation”) in reaching Africa’s development objectives.

The report on capital flows contains specific recommendations for African governments and their development partners in six key areas, including:

-- Improving market access for Africa’s exports and reducing farm subsidies by industrialized countries;

-- Tax incentives to encourage foreign direct investment;

-- Expanding guarantees and other incentives for investors in Africa;

-- Greater efforts to promote trade with Africa;

-- Better targeting of development assistance, including aid to small- and medium-sized African businesses; and

-- Strengthening African economic governance through NEPAD’s innovative Peer Review Mechanism.

The report on South-South cooperation highlights links between African countries and their Latin American and Caribbean counterparts in agriculture, health and education, energy, telecommunications, peace and security, the environment and trade.  The report notes that government-to-government cooperation between Africa and the region has fostered greater contacts among African and Latin American and Caribbean civil society organizations on a range of issues, including human rights and governance.  Development bodies like the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, the report notes, could play “a catalytic role” in expanding development cooperation between the regions.

The experiences of three countries in incorporating NEPAD’s objectives into national development strategies -- Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa -- are chronicled in a third report from the Special Adviser’s Office.  The study notes that, while integrating NEPAD’s continental goals into national and local development programmes is complex, substantial early progress has been made in each of the countries examined.  NEPAD reporting and monitoring mechanisms have been established, and priorities for initial action identified.  In Algeria and Nigeria, two of Africa’s major energy producers, transport and regional energy projects have been highlighted.  In South Africa, NEPAD enjoys the strong support of government at the highest level, and integration of the programme with national economic plans is “advanced”.  Although the involvement of civil society and the private sector with NEPAD varies greatly, the report observes, consultations among stakeholders in all three countries are increasing.

For more information contact:  Agostinho Zaccarias, Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, tel: (212) 963-8435, e-mail: zaccarias@un.org; Michael Fleshman, Africa Section, Depaprtment of Public Information, tel: (212) 963-9214, e-mail: fleshman@un.org

Advisory Panel Members

Chief Emeka Anyaoku (Nigeria), Chairman of the Panel, is the International President of the World Wide Fund for Nature and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on International Relations in Nigeria.  He is the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.

Mr. Jagdish Bhagwati (India) is a Professor at ColumbiaUniversity and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  He has served as Economic Policy Adviser to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, as Special Adviser to the United Nations on Globalization, and as External Adviser to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Dr. Kwesi Botchwey (Ghana) is the Executive Chairman of the African Development Policy Ownership Initiative.  He has taught at the University of Zambia, the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and the University of Ghana.  He was Minister of Finance of Ghana and was Director of the Africa Research and Programs, Harvard Institute for International Development, and the Centre for International Development, HarvardUniversity.  He has consulted widely for a number of organizations, including the World Bank, the IMF and the United Nations.  He is a former Minister of Finance of Ghana.

Mr. Michel Camdessus (France) is President of the Centre for International Prospective Studies, Special Representative of the President of France for Africa and Honorary Governor of Banque de France.  He is a former Managing Director of the IMF and has also served as the Chairman of the Paris Club and as Chairman of the Monetary Committee of the European Economic Community.

Professor Fantu Cheru (Ethiopia) teaches African and Development Studies courses and is currently serving as the Governor of the Global Economic Agenda Track of the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy.  He has written extensively on development in the African context, including South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia.  He is the author of several books on Africa.  He has worked as a consultant for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), SIDA and DANIDA.

Prof. Ricardo Hausmann (Venezuela) is Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at HarvardUniversity’s Kennedy School of Government.  He has served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as Minister of Planning of Venezuela and member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela.  He also served as Chairman of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee.  He was also a visiting fellow at OxfordUniversity.  He has done comparative studies between Africa and Latin America.

Dr. Richard Jolly (United Kingdom) is a Research Associate at the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom and Senior Research Fellow at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he is co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project.  From 1996 to 2000, he was Special Adviser to the Administrator of the UNDP and architect of the Human Development Report.  From 1982 to 1996, he was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF.  He is currently Chairman of the UN Association of the UK and a Trustee of OXFAM.

Ms. Anne Kristin-Sydnes (Norway) is former Minister of Development Cooperation of Norway.  As Minister of Development Cooperation, she was very active in addressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, health, education, management of natural resources, and private sector development.

Professor Carol Lancaster (United States) is professor at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.  She has been Deputy Administrator of USAID, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, and has served in a number of government positions.  She has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics and Overseas Development Council.  She is the author of numerous books and articles on Africa, including Aid to Africa.  Prof. Lancaster is expected to take up a new position as Director of African Studies at GeorgetownUniversity shortly.

Mr. Masaki Miyaji (Japan) is Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi Corporation.  He has also served in various capacities within the Mitsubishi Corporation, including two assignments in South Africa, the second as General Manager of the Johannesburg Branch.  In addition, he has occupied the post of Regional Coordinator of East and Southern Africa in the Corporation.  Other positions occupied by Mr. Miyaji include Executive Director of Mitsubishi Corporation (UK) plc and Executive Vice-President of Mitsubishi European Headquarters, as well as Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the Regional Strategy and Coordination Department in Tokyo.

Dr. Julienne Ngo Som (Cameroon) is a Chief Research Officer and currently occupies the post of Director of Scientific Information and Technological Development at the Ministry of Scientific & Technical Research in Cameroon.  She is a former Minister of Social Affairs and Women Issues in Cameroon.

Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa) is the Executive Chairman of Millennium Consolidated Investment (MCI); he is a non-executive chairman of Johnnic Holdings, MTN Group Limited and SASRIA.  He is the past Chairman of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission.  His directorships include South African Breweries plc, FirstRand Limited, Macsteel Holdings, Alexander Forbes and Medscheme Limited.  He was former Secretary-General of the African National Congress.

Dr. Ismail Serageldin (Egypt) is Director, Library of Alexandria and Distinguished Professor at WageningenUniversity in the Netherlands. Dr. Serageldin serves as Chair and Member of a number of advisory committees for academic research, scientific and international institutions and civil society efforts which include the Institut d’Egypte (Egyptian Academy of Science), TWAS (Third World Academy of Sciences), the Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.  He is Founder and former Chairman, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and former Chairman, Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP), a microfinance programme.  Dr Serageldin has also served in a number of capacities at the World Bank, as Vice-President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, and for Special Programs.

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