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Journal de la diplomatie et des affaires |
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Forum Diplomatique |
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NEPAD:
AFRICA’S NEW DEVELOPMENT PLAN African
leaders approved the text of the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD) at the Lusaka
Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit in July
2001. The OUA is in the process of becoming the
African Union (AU).
Aristotle remarked that political systems are
fundamentally transitional. Africa’s new development
plan is already a useful instrument in that transition
from the OAU to the AU. The NEPAD document, which
contains a framework for sustainable development,
enumerates the continent’s major problems and then
proposes solutions. The
new development plan, or new continental project. Was
designed by African leaders who, expressed their
unqualified political will to achieve sustainable
development and get their countries integrated into
the world economy. The NEPAD project sets out to
create a new partnership at three levels. First,
within each nation there should be an effective
partnership enabling governments, private enterprises,
trade unions, civil society and all citizens to work
together for social progress. Secondly, African
nations and sub-regions should work together in
partnership as they compete and cooperate with each
other. Thirdly, there is an absolute need for a new
partnership between Africa and the developed
countries. At the Genoa July 2001 G-8 Summit, African
leaders stated clearly that it was necessary to
rethink the relationship between Africa and the
developed nations.
The success of the new development plan would
accelerate continental economic growth, achieve
sustainable development, reduce poverty and halt
Africa’s marginalisation in the ongoing process of
globalization. The
objectives of the governing structure of the new plan
are: to enhance Africa’s capacity to manage her own
development strategies; empower African experts to
negotiate successfully major development programmes;
accelerate the implementation of key regional
development cooperation agreements and projects; and
to enable African countries to mobilize additional
external resources for their economic growth. At
the June 2002 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, the G-8
leaders will disclose an Action Plan in response to
the NEPAD project. The Action Plan will address the
following topics: peace and security; knowledge and
health; good governance and human rights; trade and
investment; and agriculture and water resources. Prime
Minister Jean Chretien’s creation of the “Africa
Fund”, his long trip throughout Africa, his public
pronouncements in favor of the new continental project
have given a new hope and confidence to Africans. The
NEPAD has a three-tier governing structure:
implementation committee, steering committee and a
secretariat. Fifteen countries are members of the
heads of state and government Implementation Committee.
The Steering Committee comprises five representatives
of the initiating presidents of Algeria, Egypt,
Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. The Secretariat,
which has a small, full-time staff in Midrand, South
Africa, coordinates activities. There are also Task
Teams for specific issues. Each project will have a
project leader or task team coordinator. President
Mbeki will chair a special Subcommittee on Peace and
Security dealing specifically with conflict prevention,
management and resolution. African
leaders decided to set standards for good governance
and to establish a mechanism for peer review. A peer
review mechanism will in the long run establish
generally- accepted codes of conduct for state and
non-state actors. Such codes of conduct in different
fields will create common denominators, thereby
facilitating and enhancing political and economic
integration within the African Union. For a peer
review system to work effectively, each nation may
lose bits of its sovereignty. That loss of sovereignty
is a small price as compared to the collective gains
that all countries will make. The new plan will not
duplicate or compete with
other ongoing initiatives and processes such as
the UN Millennium Declaration, the G-8 Okinawa
Declaration, the Copenhagen Declaration or the AGOA. Afro-pessimists
constantly remind us that the new continental project
will fail like other projects. Pessimists have a
democratic right to express themselves. It is probable
that pessimists refused to believe that the Marshall
Plan was likely to help Western Europe recover from
the ravages of the Second World War. The NEPAD and the
African Union are likely to achieve their objectives,
if projects and programs with a sub-regional, regional
or continental impact are undertaken. Such projects
could include roads, railways, energy projects,
telecommunications infrastructure, research centers,
specialized universities, environmental protection
projects, peace and security programs and HIV/AIDS
prevention. In
the interest of peace, security and stability African
nations could negotiate and adopt a continental
non-aggression treaty, creating an organization
similar to NATO, which brought peace and security to
Western Europe and North America. Immigration has
enriched nations, as it allows for the mobility of
human resources, especially managerial skills. The new
development plan and the African Union may succeed
better, if Africans can immigrate freely and settle
wherever they want to settle on the continent. That
will allow managerial skills to go where they are most
needed. Perhaps the time has come for the African
Union to put in a place an African passport. Niccolo
Machievelli wisely reminded us “ that a prince’s
greatness depends on his triumphing over difficulties
and opposition.” The new development plan is a
complex process, which comes along with daunting
challenges such as poverty reduction, environmental
protection or conflict resolution. Those challenges or
stumbling blocks are difficulties over which African
“princes” or leaders must triumph and thus improve
the daily lives of their compatriots. By overcoming
daunting stumbling blocks those leaders would enhance
their stature as leaders on the world scene. The
NEPAD presents to Africa and the international
community a new project with its opportunities and
challenges. The new project is a new seed planted in
the African political and cultural soil. We should all
help the seed germinate, grow and yield its fruit. The
opportunities are all there to be seized. The
challenges and hope are tremendous. African leaders
and their peoples will surely embrace and use the
challenges and opportunities to change the future of
the continent for the better. |
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