A Decade of NEPAD - Economic Commission for Africa - uneca

Deepening Ownership and
Partnership of NEPAD:
Key Recommendations
While much has been made of the various shortcomings
of NEPAD in its relatively short life, there are some very
concrete and tangible opportunities emerging for engagement/
re-engagement within the NEPAD programme for
African private sector institutions and African CSOs.
Two evolutionary processes occurred simultaneously which
present unprecedented opportunities for increased engagement
with NEPAD and renewed opportunity for the private
sector and civil society to participate in, and benefit from
NEPAD’s programme of action: the NEPAD integration
and the planned transformation of the African Union
Commission into the African Union Authority
NEPAD/ AU Integration Process – The evolution process
that led to the creation of a NEPAD Planning and Coordination
Agency will create increased CSO engagement
with NEPAD as the CSOs actively involved with the AUC
will now find the NEPAD Agency within their purview
for monitoring as an integrated organ of the Union. The
African private sector will note that there are increased
business opportunities and support for SMEs available
through NEPAD given the refinements made in the AU/
NEPAD African Action Plan and the expanded resources
that have been pledged/ mobilized to support NEPAD’s
implementation over the next five years. The NEPAD
Agency should also find more resources mobilized for
its support as “NEPAD” becomes a prospective beneficiary
of resources mobilized in support of the UN-AU
Cooperation: Framework for the “Ten-year Capacity
Building Programme for the African Union” which
was launched in 2006. This evolving but comprehensive
framework aims to clarify the areas, forms and scale of
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how the UN system responds to the capacity needs of
the African Union.
AU Commission transformation into the African Union
Authority Process – During the 13 th Ordinary Session held
in Sirte, Libya in July 2009, the Assembly of Heads of State
and Government of the African Union considered and
endorsed the recommendations of the 12 th Extraordinary
Session of the Executive Council on the transformation n
of the African Union Commission into the African Union
Authority. The transformation of the Commission into
an Authority is intended to strengthen the institutional
framework of the Union in order to enable it to play its role
in accelerating the political and socio-economic integration
of the Continent towards the achievement of the United
States of Africa. Selected functions of the Authority beyond
those already existing under the AU Commission include:
ӹ Promotion of Pan-Africanism and the protection and
defense, generally, of African interests within and outside
of the continent,
ӹ Mobilization of African people on the continent and in
the Diaspora to identify with and support the process
of renewal and reform of the continent as a framework
for African renaissance;
ӹ Coordinate the implementation of the Common African
Defense and Security Policy relating to defense as
well as the strategies and mobilization of the resources
required for the defense of the Continent.
With this transition, the AU’s work to mobilize the African
Diaspora as the 6 th region and the many relationships with
the Diaspora that have been developing over the past five