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The Africa-Canada Forum (ACF) is a working group of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC). It brings together 40 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), churches, unions, and solidarity groups from across Canada that have a specific interest in development issues and social justice in Sub-Saharan Africa. Part of its mandate is to enhance the capacity of members to undertake policy work concerning Sub-Saharan Africa, and to provide venues for joint reflection, debate, and for the building of common platforms.
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ACF members work in partnership with African organizations, and have a long history of policy discussions with African colleagues. When ACF became aware of the increasing attention paid to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in various international fora, and of Canada’s leadership in providing a G8 response to NEPAD as host of the June 2002 Kananaskis Summit, it became imperative for the group to critically engage with the NEPAD document. In October 2001, the ACF started to seek commentaries on NEPAD from African civil society, and set in place a process of consultation with colleagues and partners in Africa and in Canada. This ongoing process included a preliminary panel on NEPAD at a members’ meeting in October 2001 and a two-day conference in February 2002.
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This Commentary summarizes the observations of the Africa-Canada Forum, with the goal of stimulating debate. NEPAD is an important statement by African leaders and rightly seeks on behalf of Africa a new partnership with the North. But ACF members and partners share the following broad concerns: (1) a new initiative for Africa needs to be conceived from a perspective of promotion of human rights; (2) the notions of “partnership” and of “good governance” in NEPAD fail to acknowledge global and local power relationships, and are exclusive of civil society; and (3) the economic program at the heart of NEPAD does not integrate lessons learned from 20 years of structural adjustment programs which have been disastrous for Africa. CCIC wishes to stimulate a broad discussion of the implications of NEPAD for poverty eradication and sustainable human development in Africa.
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