Al-Ahram Weekly | International

		20 - 26 June 2002 Issue No. 591 International	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Nurturing NEPAD
African heads of states attending the World Food Summit in Rome used the occasion to brainstorm on NEPAD, the African initiative that is being marketed as the cure to the continent's many ills

Five years after its inception the 15 African heads of state who make up the NEPAD Implementation Committee met on the fringes of the World Food Summit (WFS) to prepare to take their proposed investment projects to the G8 summit, an annual meeting between the main industrialised countries and Russia that is to be held on 26-28 June in Canada. The African presidents and prime ministers will meet again next month at the African Unity (AU) summit in South Africa. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo chaired this, NEPAD's third meeting.
The partnership is an ambitious project aimed at managing economic and social development in Africa. It promotes good management and governance and aims at improving trade links with the world's economic powerhouses.
The numerous regional groupings that the African continent is riddled with and the fact that some countries belong to several groupings means that it is not uncommon for there to be common agendas. They have been consulted on the African initiative, adopted over a year ago and lent it their support on the basis that stronger regional groupings must cooperate in handling integrated projects.
Dr Ahmed A Goueli, secretary-general of the Council of Arab Economic Unity (AEU) has emphasised this point, saying: "Regional groupings like the (AEU), which include some members of the NEPAD Implementation Committee such as Egypt, and other North African states and AU members would naturally back the partnership."
"ECOWAS is satisfied that West Africa has positioned itself to be a part of this very dynamic initiative and will work within the framework of NEPAD in giving momentum to the process of integrating with the sub-region," Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of ECOWAS told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Chambas concurs with the partnership's recommendations that "sound economic and political governance will guarantee peace in the sub-region, contribute to the upholding of democracy, respect for the rule of law and citizens' human rights -- all important pillars that will create a stable environment in implementing the beautiful ideas we have."
Sindisco Ngwenya, assistant secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), agreed that the NEPAD process is in line with what his grouping is doing and that it will facilitate the proposed projects.
The energy, road, air transport and telecommunications infrastructure that NEPAD aims to develop is getting top priority in West Africa. Some projects are already under way, such as the West African gas pipeline project which will provide affordable, clean energy. "At the moment most of the gas found in Nigeria is burnt, with hazardous environmental consequences. The gas will now be taken and piped along the West African coast to generate cleaner, cheaper gas for industry and production," the ECOWAS executive said. Several other projects, that aim at improving the road networks that link the region's countries and make the most of West Africa 220 million population, are also lined up.
At the same time civil society and parliamentarians have voiced strong criticism of NEPAD. Some African leaders have admitted that these elements were not consulted on the initiative and that the public remains unaware of them.
The cost of financing the proposed projects is another imponderable although estimates say that the big projects will involve billions of dollars. A couple of months ago in Senegal's Dakar, NEPAD-member African heads of states met with hundreds of business representatives to work on the project plan they discussed last week at the implementation committee meeting. The World Bank has been urging NEPAD countries to try to attract private sector funding in implementing the less costly projects in a bid to establish their credibility and attract international investment for the major projects.
But NGOs and leftist parties are concerned that multinational sponsorship would only lead to spiralling debt, a growing dependence on foreign organisations and the further exploitation of the continent's natural resources by unscrupulous investors.
The World Food Summit Declaration urged the international community to finance NEPAD-inspired projects by giving priority to agricultural and infrastructure development. It remains to be seen how the G8 will react to the African initiatives.
The NEPAD heads of state meeting was followed by a ministerial meeting headed by Egyptian Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid. The meeting was intending to study and propose suggestions on strategies to improve agricultural production, rural development -- empowering women at the local level is a particular priority -- technology transfer and other related development issues. Agriculture is a priority sector for NEPAD as it employs 60 per cent of the continent's labour force and accounts for 17 per cent of its GDP.
Abu Zeid told the Weekly that the 15 countries the implementation committee is composed of are making strenuous efforts to bring other African countries on board, in accordance with NEPAD guidelines. Egypt is in the NEPAD Steering Committee together with four other member states: Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
A FAO and NEPAD joint Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) report will be a major component of the NEPAD framework to ensure agricultural and economic development, said Abu Zeid. According to FAO figures, CAADP proposes investment funds totalling $240 billion for between now and 2015.

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