Renewed momentum on speeding up the implementation of NEPAD’S Continental Projects and Programmes

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From let to righ: Maxwell Kwazalamba, AU, Mme Maryam Diallo, Benin, and Dr Mayaki, NEPAD

Johannesburg, South Africa October 4 2012- Building on some successes in its ten years of existence, The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has been planning and assessing new approaches to ensuring the effective implementation of its programmes in the next decade.

To its credit, NEPAD’s has fared well in supporting the implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Programme, which makes good governance an indispensable condition for development; and the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Programme (CAADP) through which NEPAD addresses policy and capacity issues about agricultural in Africa. CAADP is entirely African-led and owned. Its ambitious and comprehensive vision for agricultural reform in Africa aims for an average annual growth rate of 6 percent in agriculture by 2015.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day consultative meeting of members of the NEPAD Steering Committee in Johannesburg, NEPAD’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Ibrahim Mayaki said “without NEPAD, the structuring frameworks like the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the Environmental Action Plan (EAP) would not have come into being.

The Steering Committee is composed of personal representatives of African Leaders who form the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC).

The meeting was held in preparation for the next Summit of the Policy Committee of the HSGOC, which will take place in January 2013, as well as for the Forum of African Partnership which will take place in December in Cotonou, and the next G8 Summit in Britain.

Chaired by Mrs Maryam Diallo, Special Adviser on Diplomatic Affairs from Benin the meeting opened with the observation of a minute’s silence in memory of the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi. A special video in tribute of the late Prime Minister’s exceptional contribution to the dynamism of the African continent.

Mr Maxwell Kwezalamba, who is  in charge  of the African Union Commission’s Economic Affairs stated  that given the pending challenges of a still marginalized Africa it is even more necessary to implement NEPAD’s programmes.  But, in order to do this, it is more than urgent that “Africa finds innovative means for mobilising internal resources in order to take control of its own development”.

However, many challenges still remain unresolved. In January 2010, in order to speed up their resolve, the Policy Committee of the Heads of State and Government of NEPAD took a decision which includes NEPAD in the structures and processes of the AU, by transforming its Secretariat into a NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency, with a rationale which should make it an institution which targets results.

From now on, it will be up to the NEPAD Agency to facilitate the implementation of integrated regional and continental projects by working in perfect synergy with the Regional Economic Communities and, in particular, by involving the private sector and Civil Society.

In January 2013, the next summit of the Policy Committee of the Heads of State and Government of NEPAD, which is currently preparing the Steering Committee, among other things, will tackle the pressing question of the mobilisation of internal resources, the state of the implementation of the Presidential initiative regarding infrastructure, the election of the Chairman of the HSGOC as well as those of the members of NEPAD’s Policy Committee.