(period 2001- 2003)
Support to African Countries
since NEPAD was adopted in 2001
PEACE AND SECURITY
The context of our work in
this area is characterized by:
§
Greater
African determination to address conflicts
§
Continuing
conflict in all regions of Africa
§
Weak
and failing states and institutions ‑ in part owing to poor economic and
political governance, poverty and HIV/AIDS
§
Proliferation
of small arms and light weapons
§
Increasing
international determination to help resolve African conflicts.
Areas for Action
Support to resolution of main conflicts in Africa and consolidation of
peace building (Main immediate priority)
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AND GREAT LAKES REGION
Objectives: To end the
conflicts in the Great Lakes Region and to consolidate peace so that the
countries of the region are able to take responsibility for their own security
and develop in a stable environment.
Actions:
§
In
the Democratic Republic of Congo, work with South Africa, UN Peacekeeping
Force, Contact Group and UN Security Council on implementation of Pretoria
agreement and formation of inclusive transitional government by April 2003.
§
Support
disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, reintegration and rehabilitation in
the Great Lakes region.
§
In
Burundi, work with Tanzania and South Africa to secure a cease‑fire by
end of 2002 and successful implementation of Arusha agreement
§
In
whole region work with UN and others on post conflict reconstruction.
SIERRA LEONE AND THE MANO RIVER UNION
Objective: to consolidate
peace in Sierra Leone and MRU so that the countries of the region are able to
take responsibility for their own security and develop in a stable environment.
Actions:
§
In
Sierra Leone, support for governance reform and transparent management of
economy.
§
Assist
the government of Sierra Leone to have in place improved and transparent
management of diamond resources by end 2003.
§
Draw‑down
of UN peacekeeping force completed by end 2004.
§
Continued
UK support to training of Sierra Leone army and police and reintegration of
former combatants.
§
In
Liberia, containment of Charles Taylor's regime especially through sanctions
and enhanced international engagement leading to ceasefire and political
dialogue and improved governance in Liberia, and an end to Liberian efforts to
destabilize Sierra Leone and other countries.
SUDAN
Objectives: Comprehensive
cease‑fire and peace agreement leading to post conflict reconstruction
and development.
Actions:
§
Work
with the US, Norway, Italy and the East African regional group on making sure a
ceasefire and a peace agreement emerge from current Machakos negotiations
between the government of Sudan and Sudanese rebel force by mid‑2003.
§
Work
with the UN, the World Bank and others, including the EU, on post conflict
reconstruction, dealing with Sudan's debt, and developing a Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper.
ANGOLA
Objectives: Inclusive
dialogue between the government of Angola and the Angolan rebel force leads to
sustainable peace.
Actions:
§
Work
with the UN and Troika on progressive lifting of sanctions on the Angolan
rebels paving the way to free elections by 2005
§
Support Security Sector Reform and promote better economic and
political governance.
Supporting Africa's capacity to deploy Peace
Support Operations
We are working closely with
G8 partners on the specific commitment to deliver a joint plan, with Africans,
on building Africa's Peace Support Operations capacity.
UK Objective: A plan, which
aimed to enable Africa by 2010 to deploy a brigade (including a civilian and
police component etc) sustainable in the field for 18 months, for peacekeeping
operations. Members of such a force should be trained to UN standards and to a
common UN doctrine.
Proposed elements of Plan:
§
Support
to African Peace Support Operations training programmes (to teach both military
and civilian/political peace keeping and conflict resolution skills)
§
Support
to development of regional centers of excellence.
§
Support
to regional and sub‑regional organizations' PSO capacity
§
Development
of a framework for improved donor co‑ordination in this field.
Development of common
guidelines to prevent illegal supply of small arms
UK Objective: Significant
progress by June 2003 towards a G8 commitment to implement common standards in
arms export controls.
Actions:
§
We
plan to hold a Lancaster House conference on arms export control in January
2003. This offers an opportunity for the UK to work with G8 partners; African
partners and others to develop and implement common standards on arms export
controls to Africa.
§
We
are also supporting sub‑regional and UN African initiatives to control
the circulation of small and light weapons within Africa.
Addressing the linkages between conflict and exploitation of economic
resources
UK Objective: To encourage
private sector actors in the extractive industries to disclose payments to host
governments as a means of improving transparency and accountability.
Proposed Actions:
§
A
UK‑hosted international meeting of all partners’ ‑ governments,
resource extractive industries and multilateral agencies and civil society
actors ‑ in the run‑up to the Evian summit
§
Development
of a framework to promote transparency of payments, based on World Bank
technical work and ideas from other stakeholders
§
Persuading
other key governments and oil and mining companies to join this initiative
FOSTERING TRADE, INVESTMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Trade:
Objective: Reform
international trade arrangements to promote the development of African
agriculture
Actions:
§
Common Agricultural Policy Mid‑Term Review (CAP MTR): With our EU G8 partners we
will address the impact of the CAP MTR on developing countries. The timing of
the completion of the review is also important to enable the EU to make
meaningful commitments to reduce agricultural support in the WTO negotiations:
the actual schedule of figures to be ready by the Cancun Ministerial in
September 2003.
§
Other OECD countries' agricultural subsidies: We will build on the G8
political commitment to reducing agricultural subsidies in the WTO context,
seeking meaningful cuts in other G8 and OECD members' support systems.
Objective: Increasing Market Access
§
Addressing tariff peaks and tariff escalation: We will work with our EU G8
partners on a formular to reduce or eliminate the tariff escalation and peaks
that face goods of particular interest to Africa.
Objective: Fostering
regional integration
Actions:
§
EU‑ACP Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations: We will work with EU G8 and
the EU Commission to gain support for duty
and quota‑free market access for all EPAs between the Africa,
Caribbean and Pacific countries and the EU and to ensure that the EPAs meet the
aim of building stronger regional economies in Africa
§
WTO compatibility: We will work to ensure that WTO rules are applied flexibly to allow
Free Trade Areas to deliver benefits to member countries including African
partners.
Objective: Improving preferential access schemes
Action:
§
Comparative study of existing preferential access schemes currently
available to African countries: We will undertake a study of the existing
preferential access regimes in key G8 countries to deepen and spread
understanding of best practice in conjunction with G8 partners and drawing in
expertise in the World Bank, LIN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
in collaboration with African institutions. The Whitehall Africa Trade Group
will develop outline Terms of Reference for such a study as a basis for further
discussion with partners among the G8.
Objective:
Reduction of non‑tariff barriers
Actions:
§
Support
to existing World Bank, UN Industrial Development Organisation and World Health
Organisation/ Food and Agriculture Organisation initiatives in assisting
African countries to meet G8 product standards and engage in international
standard setting
§
Improving
availability of information on standards and transparency of the decision‑making
process to Trade Ministries in developing countries.
Objective: Enhancing trade‑related technical assistance efforts
Actions:
§
The Integrated Framework for Trade‑related Technical Assistance
(IF): we
will promote:
§
Increased
contributions to the IF Trust Fund
§
Expansion
of the IF to all low‑income developing countries
§
Commitment
of funding for capacity building needs emerging from the IF diagnostic studies
in African countries.
§
Complementarity
of trade‑related technical assistance (TRTA) efforts: We will promote a
demand driven approach to TRTA ensuring that the OECD Trade‑related
Capacity Building database is widely publicised and used by donors and partner
countries.
Private Sector Investment
The government supports the
efforts of the NEPAD Secretariat to engage with the African private sector.
Objective: Promotion of
private sector engagement in Africa
Actions:
§
DFID‑led
meetings to bring together the UK private sector and NEPAD to identify ways in
which they can engage with each other.
§
Leading
on the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund ‑ a public private partnership
‑ to encourage further private sector investment in Africa's
infrastructure.
§
Supporting
the establishment of the Commonwealth Development Corporation Africa Fund ‑
a mechanism to invest in African businesses, in order to crowd in further
private foreign investment in Africa
Objective: Supporting NEPAD
in their efforts to engage with the private sector
Action:
§
Funding
the Commonwealth Business Council in their work to engage with the NEPAD
Business Group
IMPLEMENTING DEBT RELIEF
Areas
for Action:
Trust Fund Financing
Objective: concrete donor
pledges totaling up to US$1 billion by the end of this year.
Action:
§
Continue
work with other donors to finance the trust fund shortfall building on:
§
UK
and Germany announcement of contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund at the Annual
Meetings.
§
Ministerial
agreement to finance the shortfall in the HIPC Trust Fund was also reflected in
the International Monetary and Financial Committee communiqu6.
§
Progress
made at a HIPC Technical meeting in Paris on 24 October where other donors made
additional pledges to the HIPC Trust Fund.
Topping up at Completion Point
Objective: all HIPCs
reaching Completion Point to receive sufficient debt relief to ensure that
their debts are below the HIPC sustainability thresholds.
Action:
§
Provision
of more relief than envisaged at Completion Point for HIPCs that have debts
above the thresholds as a result of commodity price shocks, within the HIPC
rules.
§
Press
for a change in the rules to ensure that additional relief provided beyond HIPC
by some bilateral donors is excluded from the calculations.
Technical Assistance to HIPCs
Objective: donor‑financed
facility, managed by the Bank, which can provide technical assistance ‑
including legal advice ‑ to HIPC countries that face legal threats from
commercial creditors who are refusing to give debt relief.
Action:
§
Continue
working with other donors, building on agreement at the Annual Meetings that
the World Bank would prepare a paper on options for HIPCs facing litigation
from creditors.
IMPROVING AND PROMOTING EDUCATION AND EXPANDING DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES
Specific Areas for Action:
Achieving Universal Primary Education in Africa
§
Our
priority is to engage with other G8 countries in supporting those countries
which are not yet reforming, to commit to reform, particularly Nigeria and the
Democratic Republic of Congo ‑ which fall under the World Bank's
"analytic fast track" within the Fast Track Initiative.
§
For
those countries already covered by the World Bank's Fast Track Initiative,
where we have major programmes, provision of additional support through their
budgets as needed.
Expanding Digital Opportunities
§
Support
to the CATIA (Catalyzing Access to Information and communications technology in
Africa) programme in close co‑operation with SIDA, USAID and Canada, who will be co‑funding specific CATIA
components
§
DFID
plans to commit £9 million over three years to support an African regional
programme, which will act as strong catalyst for a positive reform process and
significantly increase affordable access to ICTs (information &
communication technologies) across Africa.
IMPROVING HEALTH AND
CONFRONTING HIV/AIDS
Specific Areas for Action:
Access to medicines
Objective: G8 Summit in 2003
endorses a system of voluntary, widespread, sustainable and predictable differential
pricing of essential medicines in the poorest countries, which requires a
commitment to the provision of universal basic health care systems in order to
give affordable access to medicines to Africa's poor.
Action:
§
Over
the next 12 months, we will seek to gain international commitment from G8 and
other governments and the pharmaceutical industry to increase availability of
affordable medicines in Africa.
§
We
will also work with developing countries and relevant international
organizations ‑ to gain commitment and action at that level to support
this agenda.
§
The
government, the UK Pharmaceutical Industry and multilateral agencies have
agreed a report on access to medicine and submitted it to the Prime Minister ‑
this will form the basis for UK action over the next 12 months.
Polio
Objective: Fill the
remaining funding gap of $218m by supporting the Polio Eradication Initiative
in its efforts to convert the G8 commitment into firm funding pledges from G8
and other donors
Actions:
§
We
will work with try to bring in non‑G8 donors to fill in any remaining
gaps.
§
The
UK will allocate an additional £37.9m (including the US $25m pledge made in the
run up to Kananaskis) to polio eradication before the end of 2005.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
The UK considers that the G8
process can add most value to this agricultural development work in the area of
trade access. Work in this area is set out in more detail in Section 3
"Fostering trade investment, economic growth and sustainable
development". Some work of specific relevance to the G8 process that the
UK will continue to carry forward work over the next 12 months includes:
§
Development
of supportive international environment through trade agreements and
engagements with the EU Common Agricultural Policy and the World Trade
Organization.
§
Supporting
donor and African consensus on agriculture and rural development through
international fora and policy research.
§
International
research, technology transfers and support to the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research.
WATER RESOURCES
Work of specific relevance
to the G8 process that the UK will carry forward at the international level
over the next 12 months includes:
At the international level
the UK will:
§
Continue
work with the African Ministers Conference on Water on finance issues in
particular leading to operational launch of the EU Water Initiative at the 3 rd
World Water Forum in Kyoto, March 2003
§
Promote
greater international support for infrastructure financing mechanisms and identify
ways for them to support investment in water sector. Examples of these are the
Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility ‑ which gives advice to
developing country governments in de3veloping infrastructure financing
proposals, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund ‑ which is a joint
donor trust fund to lever major private sector finance for infrastructure and
the Community Led Infrastructure Financing Facility ‑ which provides
financing for smaller projects.
§
Support
the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto to review World Summit for Sustainable
Development actions, financing possibilities and begin to set a framework for
country‑by‑country assessment of finance gaps and necessary policy
reforms/private sector participation.
Approximate financial assistance to African countries since 2001
AID EFFECTIVENESS
Areas
for Action:
Increasing aid flows to
Africa
Objective: We will honor our
pledge that, subject to performance, half of the new resources pledged at
Monterrey should be for Africa and will work to encourage others to do the
same.
Actions:
§
DFID resources: Of the extra £1.5bn for
2005/06 announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), an additional
£0.35bn will be spent through Africa Division to meet the Prime Minister's
commitment for a £1bn bilateral programme. In order to meet the 50% target, an
additional £0.4bn will be spent through multilaterals, debt relief or added to
the bilateral programme.
§
Reporting on 50% target: Through the G8 leaders' Africa Personal
Representatives (APRs), we will seek agreement to a process for monitoring and
reporting on progress. Since the headline Monterrey commitments refer to 2006
(for both the US and EU resources), this is some way off.
§
European Commitments: We will work with our European partners to promote
progress towards Europe's commitment to ensure that member States spend an
average 0.39% of their gross national income on aid by 2006. We have made our
contribution through the recent Comprehensive Spending Review.
Enhanced Partnership
Objective: Strengthened
development partnerships at both the country and regional level
Actions:
§
Predictable resourcing of nationally‑owned Poverty Reduction
Strategy:
§
We
will agree more medium‑term frameworks with governments who are committed
to poverty reduction ‑ these will provide a clear indication of our
financial commitment over several years, thereby facilitating the country's own
financial planning and also include our expectations of partner governments.
§
Where
possible, we will work to make these
transparent and streamlined multi‑donor agreements with an agreed
process, linked to poverty reduction strategy review, for monitoring progress
and managing disputes. In addition to the existing Poverty Reduction Framework
Agreement with Rwanda, we are currently developing agreements with Ethiopia,
Ghana, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.
§
Possible regional‑level agreement between the OECD Development
Assistance Committee and NEPAD:
§
We
will further explore options for a possible Compact between the Development
Assistance Committee (DAC) and NEPAD to promote lesson learning and provide a
forum for discussion of pan‑African policy issues.
§
Strategic Partnership for Africa (SPA):
§
We
will work through the SPA to develop and apply performance indicators to
measure and improve the effectiveness of donor inputs to poverty reduction
strategy papers and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. With SPA
partners we are carrying out a small number of pilot missions to African
countries (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal) to identify a practical agenda for change
in donor policy, procedures and practice to align donor support more squarely
behind poverty reduction strategy processes.
Reducing aid management burden
Objective: reduction of
strain placed on developing country systems by management of aid.
Actions:
§
DAC:
We will help the OECD DAC complete practical guidance on donor practices to
reduce the costs for recipients and promote their ownership. We will issue an
action plan for implementation, encourage all other G7 members to respond to
the guidance by the G7 Summit and seek agreement at the February 2003 High
Level Forum for monitoring of these statements.
§
Budget Support: We will disburse an increasing proportion of our resources through
budget support (subject to adequate fiduciary frameworks) in order to reduce
transaction costs and help develop government systems for the allocation,
disbursement, accounting and auditing of resources to make this possible.
Untying
Objective: Promotion of further
untying of international development assistance.
Actions:
§
The
UK has untied all aid: we continue to urge other donors to apply the OECD/DAC
recommendation on untying aid to least developed countries.
§
We
will place no nationality conditions on either technical co‑operation or
direct budgetary support to African (or any other) partners. We will encourage
other donors to remove nationality restrictions on both their bilateral
contributions and any joint funding arrangements in which we are involved.
§
We
will work with appropriate institutions and organizations in Africa, to ensure
that African based businesses have greater knowledge of, and opportunity to bid
for, contracts funded by development funds provided by the UK.
EC Aid
Objective: Improve effectiveness
of European Commission (EC) Aid in reducing poverty.
Actions:
§
We
will continue to work towards ensuring that EC aid programmes in Africa have
the maximum impact on poverty reduction
§
We
will continue working towards increasing the percentage of aid spent in low‑income
countries from 38 per cent to 70 per cent, which will go some way towards
increasing EC spending in Africa.
Support for NEPAD Priorities
Detailed below is a sector‑by‑sector
outline of UK plans for taking forward the commitments in the G8 Africa Action
Plan, agreed at Kananaskis. Many of the areas represent work that is already in
progress. Some will require significant effort and resources if we are to
achieve the planned outcomes. We consider the following to be key priorities:
§
Peace
and Security ‑ especially continued high‑level focus on African led
peace processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Angola,
consolidation of peace in Sierra Leone. Conflict resolution in Mano River
Union, and devising a joint plan for the development of African capacity to
carry out peace support operations.
§
Trade
‑ especially breaking down barriers to access for African products to G8
markets. This remains one of our key priorities and will require a continued
and sustained effort.
§
Health
‑ especially continuing with efforts to eliminate polio, and to put in
place a system of differential pricing of medicines and build up basic
healthcare systems in order to ensure medicines and treatment are available and
affordable across Africa.
§
Education
‑ in particular, continuing to work with the World Bank to try to ensure
that the Fast Track Initiative helps drive forward progress in delivering
Universal Primary Education across Africa. We will also encourage the Fast
Track Initiative to work with those countries in Africa, which are not
committed to Universal Primary Education to gain support for reform.
§
Aid
Effectiveness ‑ enhancing the value of development assistance by
fostering long‑term partnerships based on African‑led poverty
reduction strategies, reducing transaction costs and untying aid.
§
Corporate
Transparency ‑ building on the
Prime Minister's announcement at the World Summit for Sustainable Development,
working with the extractive industries to encourage transparency of payments.
Comments/ observations on
the implementation of NEPAD
Peace and Security:
Without peace and security
Africa cannot realize any of its economic and social development goals. At the
same time development clearly has to be part of the process of peace building
in the many regions of the continent afflicted by violent conflict or the risk
of violent conflict. Peace, and security in Africa is therefore a high priority
for development and political actors alike and consequently it has a high place
on the agenda of the G8 Africa Action Plan (AAP), agreed at Kananaskis.
Conflict management and
peace building is also at the heart of the UK government's Africa policy. This
is reflected in the importance attached by UK Ministers to the Africa Conflict
Prevention Pool, a cross‑departmental initiative (DFID, FCO, MOD)
designed to achieve better co‑ordination across Whitehall and to make our
approaches to conflict in Africa more strategic, and more inclusive.
Trade, Investent, Economic growth and Sustainable development:
Trade was a priority area
for the UK in the development of the Africa Action Plan and the commitments
agreed in Section Three give scope to make progress on some of our objectives.
In addition to general commitments to take account of African trade concerns in
on‑going multilateral negotiations, such as the World Trade Organization
(WTO) and the EU African, Caribbean and Pacific Economic Partnership
Agreements, there are key areas where progress could be made on implementation
through working with G8 partners to deliver practical outcomes that also meet
key NEPAD objectives. These are: improving access to G8 markets for products of
interest to African countries, fuller and more effective use of existing market
access arrangements, addressing non‑tariff barriers, enhancing trade
related technical assistance and supporting African efforts to advance regional
economic integration. The UK consider trade access to be the area in which the
G8 can most effectively complement the range of ongoing work supporting African
Governments in developing their agricultural sectors.
Debt Relief:
G8 leaders used the Africa
Action Plan to commit to ensuring that the projected shortfall in the Heavily
Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) trust fund is
fully financed ‑ recognizing that this may require as much as $1 billion.
This includes a commitment to provide,‑ as necessary, additional debt
relief ("topping up") on a case‑by‑case basis.
Promoting Education and the Digital divide:
The key commitment in the
Africa Action Plan is to increase significantly bilateral support to basic
education for countries with a strong policy and financial commitment to the sector, in order to achieve
universal primary education and equal access to education for girls.
Improving Health and comfronting HIV/AIDS:
The Africa Action Plan
contains a concrete commitment to provide the resources necessary to eliminate
polio in Africa. There are important references to the provision of affordable
medicines, which we want to see, translated into real progress. There has been
encouraging progress within the EU already since the summit. The other area for
work over the year will be on strengthening health systems across the
continent, and working with the World Bank' as they prepare proposals on this.
Agricultural Productivity:
Agricultural policy needs to
be developed and implemented by national Governments. The UK therefore promotes
agricultural productivity primarily through
country programmes, and by supporting nationally led poverty reduction strategies.
We do not earmark funds in these programmes specifically for agriculture but
seek to respond through the priorities defined by African governments. To
support this national work, the UK also works with a range of UN bodies and
international organizations supporting agricultural development in Africa. We
have also, in the last 4 months, published policy documents entitled
'Eliminating Hunger' and 'Better Lives for Poor People ‑The Role of
Agriculture', designed to promote stronger efforts to reduce hunger and develop
agricultural policies to support improved economic growth and the reduction of
poverty. We are also continuing to respond to the current food security crisis
in Southern Africa.
Water Resources:
There are a number of
important Africa regional and international processes connected with integrated
and trans‑boundary water resource management. The UK is already closely involved in these processes, such as the
Nile Basin Initiative, and the West African Fisheries. Implementation of these
agreements, water resource management and the delivery of water services need
to be led at the catchments or national level. UK support is therefore provided
through country and regional programmes. As with agriculture, we do not earmark
funds for these programmes but seek to respond to the priorities set by African
governments in their poverty reduction strategies. The UK strongly supported
the agreement at the World Summit for Sustainable Development of a sanitation
target within the Millennium Development Goals and will support the efforts of
African countries to meet this target.