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NEPAD an African Union programme
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a continent-wide
economic, social and political strategy, was endorsed by the
same OAU summit in Lusaka, Zambia, that initiated the transition
to the African Union (see Africa Recovery, October 2001).
The programme, however, stirred some questions during the 3-8
March African Development Forum in Addis Ababa (see article "African
Union: a dream under construction"). Professor Shadrack
Gutto of South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, believed
that NEPAD "offers a promise" to Africa, but asked
why it was presented first to the Group of Eight industrialized
countries, before African governments had a chance to discuss
it with their own people. Mr. Hassan Sunmonu, secretary-general
of the Organization of African Trade Union Unity, worried that
NEPAD could undercut efforts at regional economic integration
in Africa, within the framework of the African Union (AU).
Mr. Wiseman Nkuhlu, the South African president's special
adviser on NEPAD, responded that it is in fact "a programme
of the OAU." However, since the organization is currently
preoccupied with building the AU, much work on NEPAD is currently
under the direction of 15 African heads of state, known as the
Implementation Committee. He added that both the OAU secretary-general
and chairman participate in the committee's deliberations. Mr.
Nkuhlu acknowledged that consultation with civil society "is
not where we would like it," and that more must be done
to explain its goals.
Later that month, at a two-day Implementation Committee meeting
in Abuja, Nigeria, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika similarly
emphasized the need to "sensitize" Africans to NEPAD,
since the people's active participation will be vital to its
success. And although donors have warmly welcomed NEPAD, Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo said, it is important to ensure that
they do not attach new conditions to their assistance, thereby
weakening African ownership of the programme.
A few days earlier, addressing the UN-sponsored International
Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico,
President Obasanjo sounded the same note. NEPAD can benefit from
Northern partnerships, he said, but "we must guard that
NEPAD is not being turned against us as a tool for new conditionality."
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