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The Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme is a pledge by African leaders based on a common vision, and a firm and shared conviction that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, and to participate actively in the world economy and body politic. It is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world.
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The poverty and backwardness of Africa stand in stark contrast to the prosperity of the developed world. The continued marginalisation of Africa from the globalisation process and the social exclusion of the vast majority of its peoples constitute a serious threat to global stability.
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The initiative calls for the reversal of this abnormal situation by changing the relationship that underpins it. Africans are appealing neither for the further entrenchment of dependency through aid, nor for marginal concessions.
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We are convinced that an historic opportunity presents itself to end the scourge of underdevelopment that afflicts Africa and other parts of the developing world. The resources – capital, technology and human skills – that are required to launch a global war on poverty and underdevelopment exist in abundance, and are within our grasp. What is required to mobilise these resources and to use them properly is bold and imaginative leadership genuinely committed to a sustained effort of human upliftment and poverty eradication, as well as a new global partnership based on joint responsibility and mutual interest.
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Across the continent Africans declare that we will no longer allow ourselves to be conditioned by circumstance. We will determine our own destiny and call on the rest of the world to complement our efforts.
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There are already signs of progress and hope. Democratic regimes that are committed to the protection of human rights, people centred development and market-oriented economies are on the increase. African people have begun to demonstrate their refusal to accept poor economic and political leadership. But these developments are uneven and inadequate and need to be further expedited.
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The MAP is about consolidating and accelerating these gains. It is a call for a new relationship of partnership between Africa and the international community, especially the highly industrialised countries, to overcome the development chasm that has widened over centuries of unequal relations.
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