THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT (NEPAD)

1 THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA SDEVELOPMENT (NEPAD)OCTOBER 2001iiiiABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMSAGOAA frica Growth and Opportunity ActAUAfrican UnionCGIARC onsultative Group on International Agricultural ResearchDACD evelopment Assistance CommitteeEBA Everything But Arms ECAE conomic Commission on AfricaECOWASE conomic Community of West African StatesFAOFood and Agriculture OrganisationFARAF orum for Agricultural Research in AfricaGDPG ross Domestic ProductGEFG lobal Environment FacilityGESIG lobal Environmental Sanitation InitiativeGISG eographic Information SystemGNPG ross National ProductGSPG eneralised System of PreferencesHIPCH ighly Indebted Poor CountryIAFI nternational Accreditation ForumICTI nformation and Communications TechnologyIDAI nternational DEVELOPMENT AssistanceIDGI nternational DEVELOPMENT GoalIECI nternational Electrotechnical CommissionIMFI nternational Monetary FundISOI

2 Nternational Standards OrganisationNBIN ational Business IncubatorOAUO rganisation of African UnityODAO verseas DEVELOPMENT AssistanceOECDO rganisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentPPPP ublic-Private PartnershipPRSPP overty Reduction Strategy PaperRETOSAR egional Tourism Organisation of Southern AfricaSADCS outhern African DEVELOPMENT CommunityTBTA greement on Technical Barriers to TradeUNUnited NationsUNESCOU nited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganisationWIPOW orld Intellectual Property OrganisationWTOW orld Trade OrganisationiiiiiiCONTENTSI. AFRICA IN TODAY S WORLD: BETWEEN POVERTY historical impoverishment of a continent ..4-Africa and the global revolution ..6 III. THE NEW POLITICAL WILL OF AFRICAN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLES OF V. PROGRAMME OF ACTION: THE STRATEGY FOR ACHIEVINGSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST A.

3 CONDITIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE Peace, Security and Political Governance Initiative ..16(i) Peace and Security (ii) Democracy and Political Governance Economic and Corporate Governance and Regional approaches to SECTORAL the Infrastructure (i) All (ii)Bridging the Digital Divide: Investing in Information and (iii) (iv) (v) Water Resource DEVELOPMENT Initiative [including reversing thebrain drain] ..27(i) (ii) Bridging the (iii) Reversing the (iv) Environment Initiative .. and Technology MOBILISING RESOURCES.

4 36-The Capital Flows Initiative ..36(i) Increasing Domestic (ii) (iii) (iv) The Private Market Access (i) Diversification (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) Promoting the (vii) Promoting (viii) Removal of A NEW GLOBAL a new relationship with industrialised countries and IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW PARTNERSHIP FORAFRICA S ..54(i) (ii) Promotion of the (iii) Infrastructure and assessment.

5 55-Management mechanism of the New PARTNERSHIP for Africa sDevelopment ..56 VIII. CONCLUSION ..5711I. INTRODUCTION1. This New PARTNERSHIP for Africa s DEVELOPMENT is a pledge by African leaders,based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have apressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individuallyand collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and DEVELOPMENT , and at thesame time to participate actively in the world economy and body politic. TheProgramme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselvesand the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in aglobalising The poverty and backwardness of Africa stand in stark contrast to the prosperityof the developed world. The continued marginalisation of Africa from theglobalisation process and the social exclusion of the vast majority of its peoplesconstitute a serious threat to global Historically accession to the institutions of the international community, thecredit and aid binomial has underlined the logic of African DEVELOPMENT .

6 Credithas led to the debt deadlock, which, from instalments to rescheduling, still existsand hinders the growth of African countries. The limits of this option have beenreached. Concerning the other element of the binomial aid we can also notethe reduction of private aid and the upper limit of public aid, which is below thetarget set in the In Africa, 340 million people, or half the population, live on less than US $1 perday. The mortality rate of children under 5 years of age is 140 per 1000, and lifeexpectancy at birth is only 54 years. Only 58 per cent of the population haveaccess to safe water. The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 per are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people in Africa, compared with146 for the world as a whole and 567 for high-income The New PARTNERSHIP for Africa s DEVELOPMENT calls for the reversal of thisabnormal situation by changing the relationship that underpins it.

7 Africans areappealing neither for the further entrenchment of dependency through aid, norfor marginal We are convinced that an historic opportunity presents itself to end the scourgeof underdevelopment that afflicts Africa. The resources, including capital,technology and human skills, that are required to launch a global war on povertyand underdevelopment exist in abundance, and are within our reach. What isrequired to mobilise these resources and to use them properly, is bold andimaginative leadership that is genuinely committed to a sustained human22development effort and poverty eradication, as well as a new global partnershipbased on shared responsibility and mutual Across the continent, Africans declare that we will no longer allow ourselves tobe conditioned by circumstance. We will determine our own destiny and call onthe rest of the world to complement our efforts.

8 There are already signs ofprogress and hope. Democratic regimes that are committed to the protection ofhuman rights, people-centred DEVELOPMENT and market-oriented economies areon the increase. African peoples have begun to demonstrate their refusal toaccept poor economic and political leadership. These developments are,however, uneven and inadequate and need to be further The New PARTNERSHIP for Africa s DEVELOPMENT is about consolidating andaccelerating these gains. It is a call for a new relationship of PARTNERSHIP betweenAfrica and the international community, especially the highly industrialisedcountries, to overcome the DEVELOPMENT chasm that has widened over centuriesof unequal AFRICA IN TODAY S WORLD: BETWEEN POVERTY ANDPROSPERITY9. Africa s place in the global community is defined by the fact that the continentis an indispensable resource base that has served all humanity for so resources can be broken down into the following components:-The rich complex of mineral, oil and gas deposits, its flora and fauna, and itswide unspoiled natural habitat, which provide the basis for mining,agriculture, tourism and industrial DEVELOPMENT (Component I);-The ecological lung provided by the continent s rain forests, and the minimalpresence of emissions and effluents that are harmful to the environment aglobal public good that benefits all humankind (Component II);-The paleontological and archaeological sites containing evidence of theevolution of the earth, life and the human species.

9 The natural habitatscontaining a wide variety of flora and fauna, unique animal species and theopen uninhabited spaces that are a feature of the continent (Component III);-The richness of Africa s culture and its contribution to the variety of thecultures of the global community (Component IV). first of these, Component I, is the one with which the world is most second, Component II, has only come to the fore recently, as humanitycame to understand the critical importance of the issue of the environment. Thethird, Component III, is also now coming into its own, emerging as a matter ofconcern not only to a narrow field of science or of interest only to museums andtheir curators. The fourth of these, Component IV, represents the creativity ofAfrican people, which in many important ways remains under-exploited has a very important role to play with regard to the critical issue of theprotection of the environment.

10 African resources include rain forests, thevirtually carbon dioxide-free atmosphere above the continent and the minimalpresence of toxic effluents in the rivers and soils that interact with the Atlanticand Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The New Partnershipfor Africa s DEVELOPMENT will contain a strategy for nurturing these resourcesand using them for the DEVELOPMENT of the African continent, while at the same44time preserving them for all is obvious that, unless the communities in the vicinity of the tropical forestsare given alternative means of earning a living, they will co-operate in thedestruction of the forests. As the preservation of these environmental assets isin the interests of humanity, it is imperative that Africa be placed on adevelopment path that does not put them in science recognises Africa as the cradle of humankind.