NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT (NEPAD)

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), formerly know as the New African Initiative, is a pledge by African leaders, based on a vision to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, and at the same time to participate actively in the world economy and body politic. The programme is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world.

NEPAD was first adopted by African leaders at the July 2001 Lusaka Summit. It provides an African initiated and driven framework for interaction with the rest of the world, with the long-term vision of eradicating poverty and promoting the role of women in all activities. African governments are currently in the stage of drawing the Programmes for Action to the NEPAD that are due to be launched and endorsed by the G8 summit in Canada end of June.

NEPAD is premised on African states making commitments to good governance, democracy and human rights, while endeavouring to prevent and resolve situations of conflict and instability on the continent. Coupled to these efforts to create conditions conducive for investment, growth and development, are initiatives to raise the necessary resources to address the development chasm in critical sectors that are highlighted in the Programme, such as infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and information communication technology (ICT).

The founding document of NEPAD contains both a strategic policy framework and a programme of action. It is supported by a number of detailed papers dealing with each of the major themes in the Initiative. NEPAD focusses on issues such as peace and security, democracy and political governance, capital flows, market access and the environment.

NEPAD will dominate discussions on Africa at the G7/8 conference in Canada this year, and is mentioned as part of the draft World Summit outcome document to be adopted during the World Summit. Already during the UN conference on Financing for Development, NEPAD was referred to in the official declaration.

CRITICS FROM CIVIL SOCIETY

Civil Society has only started to engage with NEPAD, but the responses from African NGOs, Unions and intellectuals largely criticise the neoliberal paradigm of NEPAD that they suspect to be very much the language of the industrialised countries, particularly the G8.

As, for example, the African Forum for Envisioning Africa: Focus on NEPAD concludes, NEPAD follows the same neoliberal principles that are under heavy criticism by Civil Society world wide and responsible for increasing gaps between rich and poor and result in economic desasters such as the recent clashes in Argentina. In spite of the recognition of the central role of the African people, civil society has not played any role in the conception, design and formulation of NEPAD. Furthermore, NEPAD adopts social and economic measures that contribute to the marginalisation of women; NEPAD does not question the global economic system that, in civil society's views, plays a major role in Africa's continued marginalisation. Many NGOs conclude, NEPAD may rather be a continuation of the highly questionable Structural Adjustment Programmes, now including privatisation of public services such as water and electricity supply or health services.