A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

96 A Decade of NEPAD: Deepening African Private Sector and Civil Society Ownership and Partnership
The AU/NEPAD African Action Plan presents Africa’s
development partners with a detailed plan of action with
well analysed budgets, and Africa’s nations are steadfastly
working to mobilize more domestic resources and improve
their capacity to self-fund and implement the various
components of NEPAD.
Despite the lingering negative side effects of the global
financial crisis that may impede the ability of the G8 and
OECD countries to meet the commitments they made
in 2005 to double their overseas development assistance
contributions, there remains positive sentiment that an
increase in assistance will yet be forthcoming over the
next few years.
It is also important for all to recognize that there are immediate
opportunities for the African private sector and
civil society to engage with the NEPAD programme and
to get involved in its implementation. There are also, more
programmes and facilities than ever before to facilitate
and support meaningful contributions to the NEPAD
process. Given the degree of support that has been mobilized
around NEPAD, and the international networks
that are being created and expanded daily, engagement in
the “NEPAD process” for African private sector and CSO
constituents will foster technology transfer and professional
growth and development.
With these various elements in rare alignment, 2010 – 2020
is poised to be a decade of economic delivery in Africa.
And NEPAD is well positioned to be the catalyst for growth
that will be required to achieve the MDGs. Specifically, it
is initiatives like the APRM process, CAADP, STAP and
PIDA that are addressing a number of major governance,
economic activity, and infrastructure development areas
which are of significant of importance to all of the countries
on the continent.
Yet, it will be critically important that adequate effort is
made by all parties to ensure that the NEPAD programme
is publicised on the continent so that Africans begin to
understand its goals and recognize the programmes benefits
– as they begin to manifest themselves through increase
peace, prosperity and growth across Africa. The
brand “NEPAD” must be prominently associated with
the many projects that have been launched toward its
implementation.
This publication has been developed to serve as a guide
to past achievement and challenges of the NEPAD programme,
as well as examine the issue of African private
sector and civil society ownership and partnership of
NEPAD. It is a roadmap and resource that can accelerate
African participation in NEPAD implementation. The
tenets of Ghana’s “Sankofa”, looking backward to move
forward, are significant features of strategic thrust behind
the development of this publication.
“A Decade of Delivery” is also designed to encourage
optimism in the NEPAD process and to stimulate increased
engagement between supporters of NEPAD and
key constituents of the programme. It is also hoped that
all NEPAD stakeholders who read this document will be
inspired by the analysis of the NEPAD process and commit
themselves to working harder to overcome the challenges
that have limited grassroots African engagement in NE-
PAD’s implementation in the past.
Lastly, it is intended that through the dissemination of a
holistic picture of the resources that are being mobilized
to support NEPAD in Africa, and beyond, stakeholders
in NEPAD will redouble their efforts to make NEPAD the
African-centred, people-powered, economic development
programme that will drive Africa’s growth and development
in the global society of the 21 st century.