Addis Ababa — The future of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is in the spotlight this week as leading African policymakers meet in Johannesburg, South Africa to agree on what it will take to move NEPAD from aspiration to implementation.

More than 60 African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development will meet from 19 - 21 October in what will be the largest gathering of Ministers and experts dealing with economic policy in Africa on NEPAD since its endorsement by African leaders at the inaugural summit of the African Union in Durban in July 2002.

In addition to the Ministers, more than 500 participants -- including central bank governors, leading academics and researchers, civil society and private sector representatives, and the international community -- are due to attend. A meeting of the Committee of Experts from 16 - 18 October will precede the Conference.

The 2002 Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) under the theme "Accelerating Africa's Performance and Progress: The challenge of NEPAD". The theme is in response to a request by the Ministers at last year's Conference in Algiers that ECA convene the next Conference specifically to discuss and agree on the way forward in effectively implementing NEPAD.

The Conference, hosted by the Government of South Africa at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, takes place at a crucial time in the evolution of NEPAD.

The last twelve months have seen a number of global meetings dedicated to the creation of a new global development compact -- including the 4th World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting in Doha, the Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, the G8 Summit in Kananaskis, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. At all these meetings, commitments were made to support NEPAD.

The Conference agenda will be organized to allow discussions on three broad clusters of issues:

- Actions required on the part of African countries to translate the principles and objectives of NEPAD to country level actions and thereby operationalize the Partnership; - Actions on the part of Africa's partners to support the principles and objectives of NEPAD, and - The challenge of monitoring and tracking of progress by African countries and their partners to ensure the achievement of the shared development objectives under NEPAD.

The Conference will discuss the operational challenges in each of these areas and propose what might be done differently. The agenda is designed around panel discussions, aimed at ensuring the maximum of interactivity.

Previously known as the New African Initiative, NEPAD is a consolidation of two proposals -- the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Program (MAP), which had its driving force in Presidents Mbeki of South Africa, Bouteflika of Algeria, Obasanjo of Nigeria and Mubarak of Egypt, and the OMEGA plan of Senegal's President Wade. It also draws on the Compact for Africa's Recovery, prepared by ECA following a request from the African Ministers of Finance in Addis Ababa in November 2000.