From Africa Renewal, Vol.16 #4 (February 2003), page 8
NEPAD: Africa's New Partnership
Preparing NEPAD for delivery
After more than a year of discussions about the priorities
of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, it is now time,
says South African Deputy Finance Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa, to
ask: "How do we deliver NEPAD?" To take the New Partnership
forward, he told finance and development ministers from across
the continent, they must concretely examine "how to take
our macroeconomic gains down to the farmers in our rural villages
and to the shopkeepers and hawkers in our cities, how to ensure
that mothers can raise healthy children that can take advantage
of well-run schools."
Such practical issues underlay much of the discussion at the
19-20 October ministers' meeting, organized by the UN Economic
Commission for Africa in Johannesburg. "The implementation
of NEPAD starts with national policies," the ministers pointed
out. From that perspective, governments will need to "move
beyond the preoccupation with short-term macroeconomic reforms
and towards policies for long-term investment and growth."
The October meeting in Johannesburg was just one of numerous
recent initiatives to tailor NEPAD's implementation to specific
countries, regions and sectors:
- African environment ministers have organized five sub-commissions
to study projects to safeguard and better utilize the continent's
natural resources. For example, a commission on Africa's coastal
and marine environment, involving 11 countries, announced in
late October that it had identified 140 national projects warranting
closer study. Earlier, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg, African leaders sought to win international
support for NEPAD as the continent's new long-term agenda for
sustainable development.
- The Economic Community of West African States has established
a new ECOWAS Investment and Development Bank, with two windows.
One is a regional investment bank to finance private sector investment
in roads, energy and other physical infrastructure, with nearly
half of its capital of $500 mn coming from the private sector.
The other is a regional investment fund to finance public sector
and poverty-reduction activities, with 90 per cent of its capital
of $500 mn coming from member states and the remainder from donor
institutions.
- Energy ministers from Africa and several developed countries,
including France, Germany and the UK, met in early November to
discuss projects to link African rural communities to national
electricity networks. They also considered efforts to improve
oil and gas distribution among African nations, including through
gas pipelines from Nigeria to Senegal, Algeria and other neighbouring
countries.
