Outline of issues on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
- WHAT IS NEPAD?
- NEPAD is a strategy for socio-economic development for Africa. The NEPAD document seeks provide 'the vision' for Africa,
A statement of the problems facing the continent and a Program of Action to resolve these problems in order to
reach the vision.
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PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
NEPAD's stated objectives are:
- To eradicate poverty in Africa and to place African countries both individually and collectively on a path of sustainable growth and development. To halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalization process.
- To promote the role of women in all activities.
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ORIGINS
NEPAD has its origin in various regional and international initiatives including but not limited to the following:
- OAU Extraordinary summit in Sirte, Libya (September 1999)
- South Summit in Havana, Cuba (April 2000)
- OAU Summit in Lome, Togo (July 2000)
- Outline at G8 Summit, Okinawa (July 2000)
- Appointment of Steering Committee and development of MAP initiative (September 2000)
- Mandate for merger of MAP with OMEGA Plan and ECA Compact Initiative for Africa's Renewal (OAU Extraordinary Summit, Sirte, Libya, March 2000)
- Merger completed on 3 July 2001 (NAI)
- Presentation to the OAU Summit in Lusaka by President Wade and approved by Summit on 11 July
- Mandated the established of a Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee
- G8 Summit, Genoa, Italy (20 July 2001)
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JUSTIFICATION
The NEPAD document justifies the initiative in the following terms:
- Many of the challenges facing Africa require a continental response and coordination
- Prevention, management and resolution of conflict
- Eradication of communicable diseases
- Preservation of natural resources and environmental assets of the continent
- Doing the above will not only benefit Africans but all humankind.
- They constitute global public goods
- The new partnership is designed to build balanced and equitable relations in the fields of
- Trade
- Investment
- Capital flows
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PRINCIPLES
The NEPAD claims to be founded on the following broad principles:
- African ownership and leadership
- Anchoring the redevelopment of the continent on the resources and resourcefulness of the African people
- Accelerating and deepening of the regional and continental economic integration
- Building the competitiveness of African countries and the continent
- New partnership with the industrialized world
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Priorities
NEPAD sets out the following as its main priority areas:
- Peace and Security (management, prevention and resolution of conflict)
- Political Governance and Democracy
- Economic and corporate governance
- Human Resource Development
- Regional infrastructure
- Economic integration and intra-African trade
- Market Access and Agriculture
- Capital flows
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES
The following structures are proposed in the NEPAD document as the driving agents for the process:
- Heads of state and government Implementation committee (First meeting in Abuja,Nigeria, 23 October 2001)
- Steering Committee
- Coordinating Secretariat
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WHERE IS NEPAD NOW?
- Marketing and communications strategy at the national, sub-regional and regional level
- Preparation of concrete,detailed and implementable programs and projects
- Heads of state implementation Committee (25-26 March 2002)
- Finalised Programme of Action
- G8 Summit, Canada, 25-26 June
- AU Summit, South Africa, July
- World Summit on Sustainable Development South Africa, August, 2002
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NEPAD KEY CHALLENGES
- Who are the 'Nw Partners" in the 'New Partnership' proposed by NEPAD?
- How does Africa establish, manage and maintain a "partnership"?
- How can Africa establish a global partnership without solid continental, regional and domestic partnerships?
- How can Africa define and establish common norms, values and standards?
- How can Africa establish and maintain enforcement and performance monitoring mechanisms for NEPAD?
- How was NEPAD conceived, to what extent does it reflect African expectation and needs?
- What is the extent of people ownership of the NEPAD process and substance?
- To what extent does NEPAD offer a viable solution to the African development crisis in terms of content and approach? How does it respond to our aspirations and hopes for Africa?
- To what extent do we agree with the general orientation of the document, its assumptions and its analysis of the problems it is trying to confront?
- What areas of the document should be dropped and which ones should be kept?
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AFRICA AND NEPAD PARTNERS
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HOW DO WE CO-ORDINATE?
- Between global/regional/trading blocs?
- Improved market access?
- Between African regional blocs?
- Commonwealth "club of 54"
- Between highly diverse and unequal African countries?
- Between governments and civil society
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WHO GOES FIRST?
- NEPAD acknowledges pre-requisites, but
- How does Africa achieve pre-requisites without substantially improved G8/EU/OECD/IMF-WB/WTO etc
- How does Africa demonstrate its commitment and adherence to acceptable norms, values and standards and whose norms, values and standards are these? How are they evolved and for whose benefit?
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NEPAD DIFFERENT MEANINGS
- Is there agreement amongst Africans about what the partnership, blueprint, programme means?
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NEPAD-WHO DOES THE WORK?
- 20 named task forces
- 157 action items
- Task forces and action items in each African country
- Will NEPAD have its own implementing capacity?
- Role of the Africa Union not defined?
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NEPAD-STANDARDS OF GOVERNANCE
NEPAD promises to set standards of governance in:
- Politics, government spending, macro-economic management, corporate and banking sectors
- No real dialogue about what these standards are
- Need to be African defined, but acceptable to the "West"
- Is Zimbabwe a test case, or is SA the test case?
- What happens if the majority of the African partners default?
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NEPAD DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
- P.M Blair, "For Africa (Zimbabwe) is a major issue, on which their credibility and the possibility of investment flows depends"
- Pres. Mbeki, denounced "white supremacist" attitudes, denounces 'hostile forces in the US and UK who are mobilizing to determine who the (Zimbabwean) ruler should be.'
- Grace Kwinjeh (MDC Brussels) "The Paternity of NEPAD is highly disputed"
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NEPAD PERSPECTIVES
- Pres. Obasanjo: "One of the things I abhor is the threat to withhold aid. NEPAD is our own. The ownership must not be taken away from Africa. NEPAD cannot stand on its own. It is the OAU's baby and the implementation committee is fulfilling OAU's mandate"
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NEPAD REALITY
- Requires acceleration of HIPC
- Raising of ODA to 0.7% GDP of developing countries
- ODA fell from 0.35% in 1992 to 0.22 in 2000
- For NEPAD Africa needs additional US$64 billion (total world ODA=US$50 billion)
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NEPAD-LEADERSHIP
- Elite driven, exclusive, but gradual inclusion (15 member Implementation Committee) but
- Too much "wait and see"
- Too great reliance on Mbeki
- Differences of opinion with Obasanjo
- Domestic imperatives and "demonstration effect"
- African rivalry
- Role of Libya and Zimbabwe
- Francophone countries
- African Security Council Seat
- Reformists and anti-reformists
- Who will influence whom?
- Who has real power within the AU?
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THE KEY QUESTION
- Is NEPAD to be an exclusive club, membership of which is determined by African countries meeting and maintaining high standards of governance?
- Is NEPAD to be a twin-track process, "variable geometry"?
- Is NEPAD to be an inclusive process, all countries to participate at different levels and rates?
- Will NEPAD be reduced to the lowest common denominator?
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PEER REVIEW
- Need for agreement on what criteria are to be
- Need for agreement on what standards are to be set
- Need for agreement on the role of AU and regional blocs
- Need for agreement on role, design, powers, mandate of independent "African Institute".
- Reality of current failures in Zimbabwe, Liberia and Malawi?
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WHAT MIGHT THE WEST EXPECT?
The West's expectations are enchored in greater economic liberalization reflected in the following:
- Greater public participation
- Government audits
- Independent central banks
- Fiscal goals (deficit targeting)
- Independent Anti-Corruption bodies (with teeth)
- Constitutional reform
- Aid proportional to revenue collection
NB: There are some who argue that there is no real place for the poor or alternative economic thinking in NEPAD's prescriptions.
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WHAT MIGHT AFRICA EXPECT?
- NEPAD supports funds
- ODA reform e.g.:
- World Bank and IMF reform
- Reduction of tied aid
- Halt brain drain
- Aid rewards to better governance
- Trade support
NB: Others have argued that contentions issues such as debt cancellation and reparations are deliberately ignored in NEPAD
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WHAT CAN AFRICA DO?
If the rationale of having NEPAD is accepted, a more neo-liberal Africa would have to:
- Work to galvanize domestic understanding and support of NEPAD
- Bring together govt., business, NGO's and civil society to generate NEPAD friendly/compliant/ supportive initiatives.
- Get demonstrably serious about governance, poor governance is not solely due to lack of capacity, it has to do with political will.
- Start winning the investment war, become more investor friendly
- Work tirelessly to recast the "Hopeless Africa" image, takes bold public steps, and market Africa intelligently and aggressively
- Create new discourse, change the rhetoric of the past, and continuously engage in focused dialogue.
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NEPAD AND South Africa
- Initiator, drafter, marketer, facilitator, funder
- Why? Mbeki & Renaissance
- SA sees NEPAD as a restructuring of Africa's global relationships thus not cast in national terms
- Is seen as a foreign policy initiative
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NEPAD AND ZIMBABWE
- Zimbabwean government participation (or non participation) in initiation, drafting, marketing, facilitating and funding of NEPAD
- Why? Mugabe, Crisis of governance and legitimacy
- Zimbabwean government sees NEPAD as a Western imposition of Neo-liberalism on Africa
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There is a general absence of a national appreciation of NEPAD and the economic paradigm upon which it is anchored
- It is not clear whether NEPAD is a foreign policy issue
- The domestic implications of NEPAD are yet to be fully explored
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NEPAD AND SADC
- NEPAD programmes and initiatives congruent with SADC organs, units, protocols
- NEPAD acknowledges need to work with regional blocs, but is extremely vague
- Danger of duplication, non consultations
- SADC currently two year re-structuring process, resources, time, personnel to focus on NEPAD?
- Urgent need for NEPAD-SADC coordination unit
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NEPAD AND CIVIL SOCIETY
- Civil society participation in the initiation, drafting and facilitation of NEPAD
- Media interest in the program and processes surrounding NEPAD (coverage of issues and debates)
- Popular appreciation by ordinary citizens of the concept, framework and processes of NEPAD
- Civic responses to NEPAD
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REASON FOR OUTLINE
- This outline is intended to give an over view of some of the issues that NEPAD raises. It does not represent the position of the Crisis Coalition on any issue. The outline's main purpose is to initiate a national discussion of NEPAD, its implications, commissions and omissions.
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