A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

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2 A Decade of NEPAD: Deepening African Private Sector and Civil Society Ownership and Partnership ten years, pilot initiatives and numerous consultations with continental stakeholders have explored how best to make NEPAD a people-centred programme, where Africa’s citizens feel ownership of the programme and its projects, and African stakeholders partner with one another – and with international partners, to achieve the aims of the NEPAD plan of action. The Forum on NEPAD: Enhancing Ownership and Partnership Held as an adjunct workshop following the convening of the 10 th UN Regional Coordinating Mechanism, the theme of the one day Forum on NEPAD was “Enhancing African Ownership and Partnership to Move the NEPAD Agenda Forward”. The “Forum on NEPAD” report illustrates the timeliness of the theme and the need for further review of the issues that still surround efforts to stimulate grassroots support for NEPAD in Africa, particularly among civil society ranks and the African private sector: NEPAD was launched by the African Heads of State and Government in 2001 with a great deal of enthusiasm and optimism. Much of this optimism was based on the belief that it constituted a more realistic, Africa-owned and Africa-centred development framework with a greater potential for success. It was also believed that NEPAD addresses the shortcomings of the unsuccessful continental development frameworks and programmes that preceded it. As a “Programme of the African Union” (AU), NEPAD was designed to guide fundamental continent-wide socioeconomic development by eradicating poverty and underdevelopment and reducing Africa’s marginalization in the global community. More fundamentally, it was designed as the policy framework for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000, a year before NEPAD was launched. According to the NEPAD framework document, NEPAD is envisaged as a “vision of an African-owned and Africanled” (para 60) development programme through which African leaders are setting an agenda based on national and regional priorities “prepared through participatory processes involving the people” (para 47). As the first decade of NEPAD draws to a close with many of NEPAD’s programmes still very much in their infancy, the confluence of national preparation, sub-regional interest, global economic opportunity, and international donor and lender support are poised to usher in a new decade of accelerated implementation and programme delivery. Hence, the core principles of NEPAD include: ӹ African ownership and leadership, as well as broad and deep participation by all sectors of society; ӹ Anchoring the development of Africa on its resources and resourcefulness of its people; ӹ Partnership between and amongst African peoples; ӹ Forging a new international partnership that changes the unequal relationship between Africa and the developed world; and Furthermore, it is believed, as stated in paragraph 5 of the NEPAD founding framework document, that NEPAD “… will be successful only if it is owned by the African peoples united in their diversity”. Additionally, the NEPAD framework calls for the establishment of constructive partnerships between all stakeholders in Africa’s development to overcome the development chasm. This involves partnership with African people and their leaders, between African countries and between Africa and the rest of the world. From an overarching standpoint, progress has been made in several areas of the NEPAD programme since inception. Specifically, NEPAD has provided political and technical leadership in contributing to the development of continental sectoral policy frameworks to guide interventions in Africa’s priority sectors. These include: the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), Short-Term Action Plan for Infrastructure (STAP), Africa’s Science & Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (CPA), and the Environment Action Plan (EAP).
Furthermore, a number of African countries and organizations have, to varying degrees of success, taken action to implement NEPAD programs/projects in key priority areas such as governance (which includes implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)), agriculture and food security, infrastructure and other sector-programs. In part, because of the peace and stability advocated and facilitated through the NEPAD programme, (at least until September 2008 when the effects of the global financial and economic crisis slowed economic progress) the initiative helped guide Africa to an unprecedented level of economic growth across the continent during the first decade of the 21 st century. International support for the NEPAD Programme has also grown consistently over the past ten years, as traditional partners and stakeholders in Africa’s development have come to accept and embrace the concept of African led development strategy and African-influenced (if not controlled) development assistance. Specifically, several commitments have been made by Africa’s bilateral and multilateral development partners, particularly those that include and represent the G8 countries. Through these commitments, there has been an increase in official development assistance (ODA) and foreign direct investment in Africa as well as new initiatives regarding debt relief and supportive of South-South cooperation. However, notwithstanding these notable achievements, significant challenges remain in regard to the implementation of NEPAD as was indicated in a 2007 study by the UN Economic Commission for Africa 1 . Among these are institutional weakness, coordination challenges, financial resource and capacity constraints, as well as low participation by the African private sector. Furthermore, adoption and implementation of the principles and programmes of NEPAD at the sub-regional and national levels has been undermined by a feeling of limited ownership and involvement among ordinary African citizens at the grassroots level. This challenge is grave given that NEPAD is based on the principle of partnership and ownership, particularly African ownership and intra- African partnership. 1 ECA(2007), Challenges and Prospects in the Implementation of NE- PAD, NEPAD and Regional Integration Department (NRID), September. ECA, Addis Ababa. 1. Introduction A Decade of NEPAD Thus, ten years on, a recurrent issue has been the inadequacy of structured and wide-ranging engagement and ownership by non-state African stakeholders in the NE- PAD agenda and process. Although two of the cardinal pillars of NEPAD are African ownership and “deep participation by all sectors of society”, this has yet to be fully realized. Indeed, recent reviews have highlighted the fact that NEPAD is not as well known as it should be in Africa and that partnerships especially between and amongst African people have not been fulfilled to the optimal level expected. It is from this perspective that many observers point to the un-even NEPAD focus on forging partnerships with Africa’s traditional development partners versus utilizing the same energy to establish partnerships with it and between the African Union’s African constituency. This sentiment has been further compounded by the fact that for many key projects within the NEPAD programme, it has been difficult to mobilize continental financial and technical resources (i.e. indigenous capital and equity), and some external partners (such as the G8/ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries) who have made bold pledges have been hindered by the current global economic crisis and unable to make timeous funding and development assistance available as promised. Thus, critics of NEPAD’s limited ability to implement have argued that Africa’s efforts in engaging external partners have not yielded results commensurate with the energy invested in it. Furthermore, a correlating effort has not been made to rally African state and non-state actors around making the kind of financial and sweat equity investment in the NEPAD programme that will show the world that the continent is serious about driving Africa’s socio-economic growth and development – in theory and in practice – with or without external buy-in. Following the integration into the structures and processes of the African Union, it is now necessary to be engaged with some questions: a. Where is the delivery on African ownership as envisaged under NEPAD? b. What hinders Africans from taking advantage of NEPAD-inspired initiatives? 3
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NEPAD and the African Civil Society
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International Classification of Non
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people and their civil society orga
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To facilitate broader knowledge of
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Under the theme “Strengthening De
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Key Stages Key Actors Sensitization
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Regional Poverty Observatory, the S
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NEPAD African Private Sector and CS
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ӹ Office of NEPAD and Regional Int
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In terms of organization of resourc
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• NEPAD-Spanish Fund for the Empo
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ӹ African Capacity Building Founda
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Conclusion The African Union’s NE
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References AfDB (2009) Africa’s D
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Secretariat and the Secretariat of
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A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

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