Addis Ababa — An expert group meeting on the role of the private sector and civil society organizations in the implementation of NEPAD programmes and projects is underway in Addis Ababa today to identify challenges hindering the process.
Opening the meeting this morning, the Head of the NEPAD Support Section at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Emmanuel Nnadozie challenged the team to clearly “articulate policy measures to accelerate their involvement in NEPAD implementation at regional, sub regional and national levels”.
The African Union Commission, the ECA and the NEPAD secretariat are jointly organizing the meeting, ends tomorrow.
Mr. Nnadozie, recalled the context within which NEPAD gets support from the UN system, said that NEPAD could always count on this support.
He reassured members that the forthcoming integration of NEPAD structures into the African Union processes did not mean the disappearance of NEPAD.
Reliable sources reveal that studies on the integration of the development framework into the African Union structures are in their final stages and the process could begin as early as July this year, if African leaders adopt the proposals now being formulated during their next summit at around the same time.
It is thought that the integration process would mainly be at the managerial level to ascertain the harmonization of norms and procedures such as human resources and finance.
In this regard, Mr. Nnadozie welcomed the effective resumption of duties of the new NEPAD CEO, Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, whom he said had quickly earned the trust and confidence of the entire staff.
The representative of the African Union Commission, Mr. Baboucarr Koma, underscored the importance the Commission attaches to private sector development, especially through the organization of an annual private sector forum, which serves as a platform for engagement between public and private sector.
He said that the AUC was working on the elaboration of a roadmap for the development of micro-finance, which is expected to help deal with the financing needs of small and medium size enterprises in Africa.
Before the meeting end tomorrow, it is expected that the team would be able to determine ways of strengthening the role of the civil society and the private sector as key partners and stakeholders in accelerating the implementation of NEPAD.
This will be done by looking at the roles of the private sector and civil society in the AU/NEPAD frameworks, as highlighted in the AU Constitutive Act/Declarations and NEPAD base document of October 2001.
The experts will look at existing pro-business and pro-civil society initiatives that align and promote the overarching objectives of AU/NEPAD; the private sector and civil society perspectives on their respective roles in the implementation of NEPAD.
NEPAD was adopted in 2001 by the African Union Summit as the sole framework for Africa's development. Hitherto there had been a multiplicity of UN agencies programmes and projects in support of the African Union and its NEPAD programme.
To ensure coherence and reduce duplication and waste, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the position that NEPAD should be the only framework through which the international community, including the United Nations system, should channels its efforts for Africa's development.
To ensure that it can be an effective partner of the AU and NEPAD, the United Nations System setup a framework for coordination and collaboration in support of NEPAD. An operational framework structured in three levels, namely the global, regional and country levels has been developed to operationalize its support.
