Definition of NEPAD
NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, is a vision and a program of action for the redevelopment of the African continent. It is also a vision of partnership between Africa and the rest of the world. Conceived and developed by African leaders under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), it was endorsed by leaders of the G8 countries on 20 July 2001.
NEPAD provides a platform for a comprehensive integrated development plan designed to address key social, economic, and political priorities in a coherent and balanced manner. It is also a commitment by African leaders to African people and to the international community that they have resolved to place Africa on a path of sustainable growth and accelerated integration into the global economy. It is a call for support of African development on the basis of Africa’s own agenda and program of action. Finally, it is a clarion call to the people of Africa to assume ownership of their own destiny.
Objectives and Focus
The long-term objectives of NEPAD are to eradicate poverty in Africa and place African countries on a path of sustained growth and development and thus halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalization process.
Recognising the need for African countries to pool their resources together to enhance their competitiveness, NEPAD calls for the strengthening of the five sub-regional economic groupings of the continent. Accordingly, it focuses on the sub-regional and regional levels, and not at the national level. Thus there is a focus on the provision of essential regional public goods and the promotion of intra-African trade and investments - a focus which is important for addressing some key water issues facing Africa. The NEPAD approach should help define and create the strategic framework and broader picture for African development allowing the national level developments to fill in the individual parts of the picture.
Priority Areas
There are eight priority areas in the plan including a number in which water features strongly. They are:
- Infrastructure
- Information and Communication
- Energy
- Transport
- Water and Sanitation
- Human resources development initiative
- Health
- Agriculture
- Environmental initiative
- Culture
- Science and technology initiative
- Access to the markets of developed countries for African Exports
For each of these priority areas, strategic objectives and expected actions have been identified. For each of them, the goal is to bridge existing gaps between Africa and the developed countries so as to improve the continent’s international competitiveness and enable it to participate effectively in the globalization process.
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