The African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) are both relatively new names on the African political landscape. Borne out of a desire to revive a much-maligned continent, ravaged by exploitation, war, and hunger, these initiatives have formed part of a concerted drive by African leaders to put the continent on a track towards growth and development. This preliminary report provides a brief overview of elite perceptions surrounding certain issues pertaining to NEPAD and African Union. A more in-depth report elaborating on these and other issues will be available towards the middle of the year.
The 1990s were characterized by turbulent and crucial events in African history. The Sirte Declaration of 1999 anticipated the dissolution of the Organization of African Unity and in July 2001 the Constitutive Act of the African Union was ratified and implemented in Lusaka, Zambia. During the late 1990s South African President Thabo Mbeki embarked on an African Renaissance, and gained the support of two prominent African leaders, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria) and Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) for the Millennium Africa Recovery Plan (MAP). On 3 July 2001 the New Africa Initiative (a merger between the MAP and the Omega Plan of President Wade of Senegal) was formed and approved by the OAU Summit Heads of State, the policy framework of which formed NEPAD. The NEPAD document was signed and finalized on 23rd October 2001. It was a unique plan in that it was conceived in Africa by Africans and boasted the support of 5 prominent leaders: Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria), Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal) and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt).
Whereas the AU concerns itself mainly with the creation of a political infrastructure that should promote greater continental coherency and unity, NEPAD contains the blueprint for Africa’s socio-economic strategy towards sustainable growth. It is essentially a holistic integrated framework, developed and conceived by 5 prominent African Presidents (Thabo Mbeki from South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo from Nigeria, Adelaziz Bouteflika from Algeria, Abdoulaye Wade from Senegal, and Hosni Mubarak from Egypt) that aims towards the socio-economic upliftment of the African continent.
The actual NEPAD document provides a statement of the problems facing Africa and addresses key social, economic and political priorities that will put Africa on the path of sustainable growth. The goals of NEPAD, as stated in the official summarised version, are the “promotion of accelerated growth and sustainable development, the eradication of widespread and severe poverty and the halting of Africa’s marginalisation in the globalisation process.”
Both initiatives, but especially NEPAD, have come under intense scrutiny from African civil society, who has argued that it is an elitist design, conceptualized and based on the interests of privileged minorities on the continent. This view has been countered by its proponents who have contended that the values espoused in NEPAD are indeed representative and in line with international standards of good governance.
An attitude survey testing elite opinions of NEPAD, African Union and related aspects was conducted in 7 African countries between August and December 2002. The countries incorporated include South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. This document constitutes a preliminary report of some of the initial findings of the survey.
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