New York — African leaders have approved a three-year timetable for integration of the institutions of the continent's development blueprint into the governing and administrative structures of the African Union. They originally adopted the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) in 2001, but with the old Organization of African Unity in the process of transition to the AU, the institutions set up to promote the plan have remained distinct, linked to the AU only on an ad hoc basis.

Meeting in Mozambique at the second AU summit in July, African heads of state and government authorized the chairman of the Union's Commission, former Malian president Alpha Oumar Konaré, to secure agreement with South Africa, which hosts the NEPAD Secretariat, to designate the body as an external AU office for a transitional period ending in July 2006. The decision is intended to give the new pan-African political organization, headquartered in Addis Ababa, time to become fully operational.

In the interim, the NEPAD Secretariat will continue to operate under the direction of the Implementation Committee, composed of 20 African heads of state and government. These NEPAD bodies and the AU will continue to develop working relationships and lay the groundwork for full integration.

This will include harmonizing policies and developing a sustainable funding mechanism for NEPAD after 2006. Toward that end, the AU has urged member states and the international community to step up financial support for NEPAD.