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From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#4 (March 1998), page 4 (part of Special Feature on the 2-year review of UNSIA)

What is the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa?

The Special Initiative on Africa is a 10-year programme of concrete actions to accelerate development in priority areas already identified by African countries. It was launched on 15 March 1996 by the UN Secretary-General, the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity, the World Bank President, the Presidents of Ghana and Senegal, the Vice-President of Kenya and UN agency heads. The Initiative is the implementation vehicle for the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF).

The Initiative aims to enable Africans to take charge of the development process, to maximize support for Africa's development efforts, and to improve donor coordination and increase aid effectiveness.

While the Initiative has numerous priorities, a re-focus on five is now being proposed: expanding basic education and health care, promoting better governance, harnessing information technology, and fully integrating population concerns into all aspects of development, with a special emphasis on women's full participation. Activity in the other priority areas would continue.

For each component of the Initiative, a UN agency (or agencies) is responsible for resource mobilization and coordinating implementation. The lead agencies are accountable for ensuring progress in each component. African governments are responsible for local implementation.

Pillars of the Special Initiative

1. Education: a major objective of the Initiative is to help Africa attain universal basic education, which is considered the best possible development investment.

2. Health: broader access to health services, and improved resource mobilization, management and allocation in all countries are key elements in the health sector component of the Initiative.

3. Governance: the Initiative promotes transparent, accountable and efficient governance. This includes strengthening democratic institutions and civil society, and building peace.

4. Information technology: the Initiative is working to increase access to telecommunications and the Internet in order to harness the vast power of information for Africa's development.

5. Population and gender: bringing these crucial elements of sustainable development to the heart of economic and social policy-making is a priority of the Special Initiative.

Other priorities of the Special Initiative include:
resource mobilization; debt relief; trade access; South-South cooperation; peace building and conflict resolution; development of water resources; food security; land degradation and desertification control; poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods.

Participating agencies:
Food and Agriculture Organization
International Fund for Agricultural Development
International Labour Organization
International Monetary Fund
International Telecommunications Union
UN Children's Fund
UN Conference on Trade and Development
UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs
UN Development Fund for Women
UN Development Programme
UN Economic Commission for Africa
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UN Environment Programme
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UN Industrial Development Organization
UN Population Fund
Universal Postal Union
World Bank
World Food Programme
World Health Organization
World Meteorology Organization
World Trade Organization


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