PDF (2.0 MB)

This meeting of the Steering Committee comes a year afterthe landmark decision of the 14th AU Summit on the integrationof the NEPAD programme into the AU structures and processesand the establishment of the NEPAD Planning and CoordinatingAgency. It is against this background that I wish to saluteDr. Mayaki and his staff in the NEPAD Agency for steps that have beentaken to align their internal processes to that of the AU Commissionand to articulate a 2010 to 2013 Strategic Direction document and2010-2014 Business Plan for the NPCA.I recall that in 2002 the United Nations endorsed the NEPAD programmeas the overarching framework for Africa’s development andthe Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) was originally designedto support the NEPAD programme. However, since NEPAD is now anintegral programme of the African Union, the RCM which is coordinatedand convened by the Economic Commission for Africa, is nowalso geared to overseeing the Ten Year Capacity Building Programmein support of the AUC and NPCA.The first triennial review of the Ten Year Capacity Building Programmewas undertaken at the last RCM meeting here in Addis Ababa in November2010. The main outcome of the review was the adoptionof recommendations to boost the implementation of the Ten YearCapacity Building Programme notably by developing comprehensivecapacity building programme for the AUC, NPCA and the RECs, mobilisingresources for joint activities in capacity building, and utilisingthe RCM platform for advancing Africa’s preparations towards theUN Sustainable Development Conference in 2012.Also of particular significance is the fact that the AUC moved to takeownership of RCM-Africa which is now the recognized mechanismfor coordinating UN support for AUC and NPCA.The first NEPAD decade was spent on programme design, developingpartnerships, and aligning institutional structures- that is, embeddingthe philosophical framework underpinning the principles ofownership and leadership in African development processes and layingthe foundations for sustainable development in Africa.I can now envisage the ushering in of a new NEPAD decade whereemphasis would be placed on implementation and delivering devel-60 Part One