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| Regional Stakeholders Consultation on New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
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| 1. Introduction |
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The New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, is a pledge by African leaders based on a common vision and 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 sustained growth and development and at the same time to participate actively in the world economy and body politic. NEPAD’s focus on partnership serves to ensure space and voice for all key development partners and stakeholders. In this regard, the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in giving full and rich expressions of stakeholder perspectives is recognized and provided for.
The African Development Bank has actively supported the NEPAD Initiative since its inception and will play a Lead role in the Infrastructure and Banking and Financial Standards activities of NEPAD; as well as collaborate with other institutions in other areas. CSOs on the other hand have also taken it upon themselves to analyse and discuss NEPAD and relate their activities to its activities.
In view of the fact that the Bank, the ECA and the NEPAD Secretariat are part of the official organs, their roles have already been defined. CSOs on the other have yet to find their way of contributing to enriching the Initiative as well as popularizing NEPAD through country, sub-regional and regional level dialogues. Given the Bank’s partnership with CSOs, through the ADB/NGO Committee it was decided to have the Consultation that would define the role of CSOs in enriching NEPAD and also popularizing it in their constituencies. The Consultation was organized in consultation with the Bank’s partner regional institutions including the ECA, the OAU and the NEPAD Secretariat. The Consultation was to build on similar discussions just previously held by the ECA in Addis Ababa in March 2002.
The Consultation was attended by 27 African Networks, 3 NGOs and representatives of the Bank, the ECA and the OAU. Due to previous commitments the NEPAD Secretariat was not able to attend the Consultation.
In his opening remarks the Honourable Minister of State for Interior and Decentralisation, welcomed participants to Abidjan for the regional Consultation. He thanked the Bank for taking the initiative to organize the Consultation which was an opportunity for the deep aspirations of the African peoples to be expressed in NEPAD. He officially declared the Meeting open and wished the participants well.
The Co-Chairman of the ADB/NGO Committee Mr. Fadel Diame expressed gratitude to the Bank for facilitating the realization of the ADB/NGO Committee; a framework essential for engagement and collaborative work between the Bank and African civil society as in the case of the Consultation on NEPAD.
In the opening remarks to the Consultation, the President of the Bank
Mr. Omar Kabbaj noted that the Consultation represented the concrete outcome of the deliberations and strategic partnership between the Bank and African civil society through the ADB/NGO Committee. He informed the Consultation that the Bank serves as the lead agency in the areas of Infrastructure and Banking and Financial Standards in NEPAD. The Bank will encourage African countries to adopt policy and institutional reforms, assist in the preparation of projects and programs and the development of financial criteria. It will also strengthen donor coordination in resource mobilization.
He noted that CSOs had a special role in building a broad based constituency for NEPAD which is vital to the programme activities and confidence building measures that will build the sound economies and democratic credentials of the new Africa. Building popular support for NEPAD will require concerted efforts to initiate stakeholder dialogue at national and local levels aimed at elaborating and enriching its content and process. In this respect civil society value added role is to convey the full and rich expressions of all stakeholders into NEPAD process, thereby ensuring that it reflects the true will and aspirations of all Africa’s peoples.
The Consultation was made up of presentations and discussions on NEPAD and the related activities of regional African institutions (ADB, ECA, OAU) and that of CSOs. CSOs consulted among themselves on strategic agenda for their involvement in NEPAD and way forward.
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