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| Regional Stakeholders Consultation on New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
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| 3.The roles and Activities of the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the OAU/AU in the context of NEPAD |
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3.1 The African Development Bank Group (ADB):
The Bank’s initial involvement in NEPAD took the form of participation in meetings and conferences that culminated in the design of NEPAD from the two original initiatives (MAP and OMEGA). The Heads of State Implementation Committee (HSIC) later assigned the Bank the task of Lead agency for development of infrastructure projects and fostering implementation of Banking and Financial standards. The Bank liaises closely with Senegalese Government on Infrastructure and Nigeria on Economic and Corporate Governance.
The present and future role of the Bank in NEPAD will be to provide technical assistance and advisory services; assist the Committee to develop and operationalise mechanisms for the mobilization of resources and implementation of programmes; and to foster implementation of economic and corporate governance. The Bank’s role will be transitional until NEPAD is fully integrated within the African Union. In-house the President has designated a management Task Force and a Focal Point on NEPAD at Vice President level (supported by a Secretariat). Tow Task Forces have been established for Infrastructure and Development and Banking and Financial Standards. A Third Task Force on Economic and Corporate Governance is being established.
With regard to Infrastructure development and as a lead agency, the Bank is expected to identify and elaborate on policy and institutional measures and reforms for infrastructure development; establish the criteria for selection of projects to be presented to potential financiers; assist countries in preparation of projects and programmes through studies and sector reviews; strengthen donor coordination and establish methods for effective resource mobilization; and suggest strategies to promote Public Private partnerships (PPPs).
The short term consists of four phases:
- Phase 1: December 2001 to January 2002: Consultations with Regional Economic Communities to secure list of potential infrastructure projects, programmes and initiatives
- Phase 2: February to June 2002: More detailed analysis and proiritisation of the long list of potential projects/program
- Phase 3: June 2002 – December 2002: Project cycle activities including mobilizing funding
- Phase 4: January 2003+: Project implementation, monitoring, completion and feedback
The medium to long term goal actions include activities that would be undertaken to allow a steady, continuous and sustained development of infrastructure in the continent and the development of a coherent NEPAD strategy programme for the region’s infrastructure development . This would entail detailed studies on regional and sectoral lines; and developing a comprehensive strategy and detailed actions and programs to ensure concerted actions to develop infrastructure in Africa.
With regard to Banking and Financial Standards the main activities are planned as follows:
- Phase 1: December 2001 – February 2002: In-house preparatory activities
- Phase 2: March – May 2002: Consultations with stakeholders to formulate a framework for implementation standards in African countries
- Phase 3: June 2002 onwards: Mainstreaming activities to foster implementation of standards as well as technical assistance towards dissemination capacity building and resource mobilization and the establishment of the mechanism for peer review.
The Bank will collaborate with the ECA on Economic and Corporate Governance.
As a financial institution the Bank will use financial resources at its disposal to finance the implementation of the NEPAD programs in Agriculture and rural development; private sector operations; education and health; regional infrastructure; economic and corporate governance; cross-cutting issues including environment and gender.; as well as sensitizing civil society organisations.
The Bank Group is solidly behind NEPAD process and will continue to work with Regional Economic Communities, NGOs and other development partners to foster NEPAD.
3.2 The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA):
In the earlier discussions on Africa’s development the ECA had been requested to provide the Compact for Africa’s development in which there would be some definition of the nature of the relationship between various stakeholders in Africa and between Africa as a whole and the outside world. The thinking in the Compact found some meaning in the development of the New African Initiative (NAI) and consequently NEPAD.
Within the NEPAD framework, the ECA is responsible for Economic and Corporate Governance. The key activities are to develop indicators and the monitoring of such indicators on governance. Governance in the NEPAD context meaning commitment to AFRICA’S revitalisation and renewal in the 21st century; ownership and management of the development process and having governance as a precondition for Africa’s renewal. Preconditions include peace security, democracy and political governance; economic and corporate governance, with focus on public financial management; and the need for institutional capacity building. Essential elements of good governance including political representativeness, institutional effectiveness and economic governance.
Measuring governance poses challenges that are not encountered in economic or social development fields. More and better data is required to build indicators on good governance assumptions.
So far the ECA framework is to have developed a conceptual framework on defining governance; developing governance indicators as well as crafting the research instruments and addressing the issues of ownership and commitment by selecting national research institutions to work with; having national workshops to launch the process at the national level; and having in-country conferences of stakeholders to discuss Draft country reports. Research instruments include seeking expert opinions, seeking the perception of the general public in the country (through a representative sample); desk studies to provide, inter alia, background information on the country’s recent governance history.
Countries already covered under phase one are: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
Those yet to come under phase two are: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Swaziland, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Governance monitoring is expected to build a capable state, provide a systematic collection and analysis of data on key capable state indicators; provide the needed information for Peer Review process and also for building further interventions in the governance arena.
This should also secure that there is predictability of state policy and actions based on transparency, accountability and proper functioning of governance structures such as parliaments, the Judiciary and the Presidencies.
CSOs have a key role to play in this process as watch dogs, development and validation of indicators, monitoring of governance (e.g. securing that there is no corruption in revenue collection and expenditures).
3.3 The Organisation of African Unity (OAU):
The origins of NEPAD are in the OAU Extraordinary Summit in Sirte, Libya in September 1999, followed by discussions in the South Summit in Havana, Cuba (April 2000), OAU Summit in Lome, Togo (July 2000), mandate for the merger of MAP, OMEGA and the ECA Compact Initiative for Africa for Africa’s Renewal at the OAU Extraordinary Summit, Sirte, Libya in March 2001. The merger was completed on 3 July into the New African Initiative (NAI) and presented and approved by the OAU Summit in Lusaka on 11 July, 2001.
Inspite of the apparent confusion, NEPAD is a project of the OAU or the forthcoming African Union. The Implementation Committee has to report annually to the AU Summit. The AU Chair and Secretary General are ex-official members of the implementation Committee. The AU Secretariat participates in the NEPAD Steering Committee meetings.
The OAU is currently the lead agency on Peace and Stability; political governance and democracy as well as Market access and Agricultural Development aspects of NEPAD.
The OAU Secretariat is working out the modalities and key parameters of its areas of intervention in NEPAD. Existing structures include the Committee of Ambassadors and formation of linkages between the NEPAD activities under political governance and democracy with those on the series of OAU Calabashes on democracy.
The OAU sees NEPAD as an instrument of operationalisation and implementation of the AU’s socio-economic development blue print and the acceleration of the implementation of the Abuja Treaty.
The OAU further cautions that NEPAD is an African programme that Africans should implement without too much expectations from beyond existing framework of cooperation with the developed countries, namely, the African Opportunities and Growth Act in its relationship with the USA; TICAD framework with the Japanese and Cotonou with the European Union.
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