From the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) - DPMF.org

14 DPMF Occasional Paper No. 13The intervention of the WB/IMF with their SAPs raised alarm bellswith the OAU. “Most of our countries have entered into SAPs withthe international financial and monetary institutions, mostly atheavy political and social costs..We are very much concerned.there is an increasing tendency to impose conditionalities of apolitical nature for assistance to Africa” (OAU Declaration 1990,p.2) 12 .The Declaration stated clearly the determination of Africangovernments to pursue development on the basis of “self-reliant,human-centered and sustainable approaches based on socialjustice and collective self reliance to achieve acceleratedstructural transformation of our economies”.Furthermore, the governments were “determined to rationalise theexisting economic groupings in our Continent in order to increasetheir effectiveness in promoting economic integration andestablishing an African Economic Community... These wereobjectives set in the LPA in 1980. We reaffirm their continuedvalidity, as well as the fundamental principles of the LPA andAfrica’s Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER),including the sectoral priorities contained in them, in particular,the urgent need to attain self-sufficiency in food production, topromote science and technology for development and to establish aviable industrial base on the Continent. In this connection, wecommit ourselves to the pursuit of sound population andenvironmental policies conducive to economic growth anddevelopment of our Continent”(Declaration, 1990, p.3).It is important to note here that both the objectives and sectoral prioritiesof the Declaration were very different from those of SAPs.In addition to these strong statements on the nature of the Africaneconomic crisis and the role of the Bretton Woods institutions in theperpetuation of the crisis, the OAU’s Heads of States made two importantdecisions on internal political issues, which were of great concern in the12 OAU. 1990. Declaration of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of theOAU on the Political and Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the FundamentalChanges Taking Place in the World, Addis Ababa, July 1990.