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Strengthening Democracy Through NEPAD:
The Role of African Civil Society
CommuniquР№
Declared from the proceedings of a conference convened by
The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa
Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa
26-27 May 2003
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Seventy representatives of civil society groups in Africa from the
southern, eastern, western and central African regions met over two days in
Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss questions of how to strengthen
democracy through NEPAD. The conference was officially opened by the
Speaker of the National Assembly of Lesotho and Chair of the SADC
Parliamentary Forum, the Honourable Madame A.N. Motsamai.
The major themes discussed at the conference included: the consolidation of
democracy in Africa over the last decade, the relationship between
institutions and governance and civil society's participation in
institutions of governance. Conference noted with regret the
non-participation of representatives from the North African region due to
logistical difficulties, but undertook to make every effort to include
North African civil society representatives in all future engagement.
Conference identified a number of concrete strategies for tackling the
challenges confronting civil society in its engagement with the African
Peer Review Mechanism. These strategies will address the need to publicise
and share research findings, the need to establish civil society 'nodes' to
improve co-ordination and the need for the establishment of a working group
and the need to establish a Pan African Civil Society. The major task of
the working group will be concerned with setting of norms and standards for
credible democratic governance, with special focus on elections and
accountability of public representatives.
The working group will be comprised of two civil society representatives
from each of the four African regions participating in the conference. The
working group was tasked with sketching the way forward to formalising the
establishment of a Pan African Civil Society Forum on NEPAD and the African
Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). EISA was requested and agreed to perform a
co-ordinating role in the establishment of the Forum.
For further information contact:
Denis K. Kadima
Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA)
Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 482 5495
Email: dkadima@eisa.org.za
Web: www.eisa.org.za
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