Addis Ababa — "Africa must truly unite and speed up the pace of regional integration." That is the message of the third African Development Forum (ADF III), organised by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), which kicked off at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday.
The opening ceremony was chaired by UNECA's executive secretary, K.Y. Amoako, in the presence of the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, and 1,600 delegates from all over Africa and further afield.
The theme of ADF III is 'Defining Priorities for Regional Integration' and, in his opening speech, Amoako concentrated on the need to accelerate the pace of continental integration and the challenges ahead.
Meles said this was the third time the ADF has chosen timely and pertinent themes for dialogue and for building consensus on priority strategic issues for the development of Africa.
He called regional integration "the premier political and economic challenge that Africans are facing today." He added that his country would continue to be committed to both regional integration and African unity.
He underlined that all such successful efforts had been underpinned by political will "not merely expressed in documents, but of no less importance, by practical commitment in carrying out obligations assumed by governments and political leaders. If Africa is to succeed in this exercise, this is a lesson that we cannot ignore."
Meles said that, at the highest political level in the continent, African leaders had committed themselves to the maximum practical level of economic and political integration, concluding: "There can be no other meaning for the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which we have embraced."
ADF III follows a weekend African Union Symposium in Addis also under the auspices of UNECA which brought together African government officials, politicians, civic, youth and womens' groups, business people, academics and activists from a range of non-governmental organisations. The agenda to discuss and take forward some of the thorniest and most profound problems affecting the continent today.
Regional integration is just one of those issues. In his opening address, Amoako said the delegates had gathered together in Addis to "explore options for further progress and to accelerate actions for the collective good."
The first African Development Forum focused on information and communications "as a way to leapfrog development." ADF II tackled HIV/Aids and stressed "how important leadership at every level is to prevent the spread of the disease," Amoako reminded the delegates.
This third meeting, he said, was also intended to "bring together views and interests on a fundamentally important issue - one of great complexity, where there is a lot at stake for our political and economic future. This is the economic and political integration of the African continent."
The UN's Africa chief said that since its inception in 1958, the Economic Commission for Africa had fostered regional integration. "We were a venue in which Pan-Africanism was discussed. We proposed and urged the creation of the African Development Bank. When regional integration lagged, with great creativity, Adebayo Adedeji (former ECA executive secretary) and other leaders actively fostered the creation of the main sub-regional economic communities."
But with the praise came some misgivings and Amoako lamented that, despite significant accomplishments, "a number of our fondest hopes for regional integration have not been realised."
Amoako told delegates that Africa would have to be candid about what are usually "unspoken fears", such as the potential "loss of sovereignty, development opportunities and revenues." He concluded that these were real factors that must be faced and that regional integration must move faster so that "Africa can respond ever more effectively to a globalizing world."
He urged the meeting in Addis Ababa to keep in mind the best experiences, while considering the pitfalls that lay ahead and how to take the "next steps towards our new dream."
But there are dissenting voices in Addis Ababa who are asking how the priorities for speeding up regional integration will be decided and implemented. Amoako said the recommendations and conclusions of ADF III would be handed for consideration to an OAU council of ministers' meeting, due to be held shortly in Addis Ababa.
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Critics also question the creation - and potential usefulness to the mass of people on the continent - of the African Union which is set to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) later this year, at a summit scheduled for Pretoria, South Africa, in July.
The dissenters argue that major questions remain unanswered and point, for instance, to the difficulties the OAU, and even regional organisations, have had trying to resolve the many conflicts on the continent and whether its successor will have any more success.
If ADF III - billed by the organisers as an open forum, not for African presidents and VIPs, but for African people is to succeed, it will need to tackle the doubts of those who feel they have been poorly served by past leaders, bad policies and a continental organisation, the OAU, that manifestly failed to improve the lives of millions of Africa's citizens. (ADF3)
