From Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #3, October 2001, page 24

'We will determine our own destiny'

Attainment of Africa's long-term development goals is anchored in the determination of African peoples "to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalizing world," says the introduction to the New African Initiative. In launching this strategy, "Africans are appealing neither for the further entrenchment of dependency through aid, nor for marginal concessions." Instead, states the Initiative, "We will determine our own destiny," through "bold and imaginative leadership" and by harnessing all available capital, technology and human skills. It calls for a new relationship between Africa and the international community, in which the non-African partners seek to complement Africa's own efforts.

The document -- which is not yet in its final form -- combines two earlier plans, the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme launched by the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria, and the Omega Plan, initiated by Senegal's president. In August, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal met with a multi-country group of experts to map out further work on the Initiative. While special "task teams" will elaborate concrete implementation strategies in specific priority areas, other experts will sharpen and refine the overall Initiative. Their goal is to finish by the time of the Group of Eight summit, scheduled for June 2002 in Canada, and to present the final Initiative to the UN General Assembly at some point during its 2001-02 session. (A preliminary version of the New African Initiative is available on the Web: <www.polity.org.za/govdocs/misc/mapomega.html>.)

The Initiative recognizes that colonialism left Africa with weak states and poorly developed private sectors. And while the globalization process has made it more difficult for Africa to compete internationally, the Initiative's promoters believe that "the advantages of an effectively managed integration [into the global economy] present the best prospects for future economic prosperity and poverty reduction."

For Africa to develop, argues the Initiative, three conditions need to be met: peace, security, democracy and good political governance; improved economic and corporate governance; and regional cooperation and integration. The Initiative identifies several priority sectors requiring particular attention and action:

• physical infrastructure, especially roads, railways and power systems linking neighbouring countries
• information and communications technology
• human development, focusing on health and education, including skills development
• agriculture
• promoting diversification of production and exports, with a focus on market access for African exports to industrialized countries.

To make significant progress in those sectors, Africa will need to mobilize more resources. This can be done, the Initiative says, through a combination of African and external efforts. African countries themselves can take steps to increase national savings by firms and households, ensure more effective tax collection, rationalize government expenditures, and reverse the flow of capital flight, in part by improving the conditions for domestic investments. The international community can assist, most immediately by significantly increasing flows of official development assistance, although such aid needs to be significantly reformed, since the way it is currently delivered "itself creates serious problems for developing countries." Creditors also should provide more debt relief, both for countries qualifying under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative and for those outside that debt-relief framework. In addition, more foreign investment is important, says the Initiative, but given the current difficulties of attracting private capital flows to Africa, it can only be a "longer-term" answer to the continent's resource gap. Whatever help it can get from external partners, concludes the Initiative, "Africa recognizes that it holds the key to its own development."

See related articles:
[ New African Initiative stirs cautious hope ]
[ Transforming the Organization of African unity into the African Union ]
[ African initiative challenges the UN ]

Material from this article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
"Africa Recovery, United Nations".
We would appreciate a copy of the reproduction.

Africa Recovery
Room S-931
United Nations
New York, NY 10017 USA

Tel: (212) 963-6857
Fax: (212) 963-4556
Email: africa_recovery@un.org

Website: www.africarecovery.org
Contact us by email: africa_recovery@un.org