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The North will not provide the answers for the global development!
Source:
Accord International
Despite the fact that some states have been independent for more than 40 years, democracy has not yet been effectively established on the African continent. Instead, conflict in some cases has been exacerbated by organizations, institutions and movements claiming to fight for democracy. Pan-African civil society statement. June 2008 (pdf).[see more]
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In January 2001 South African President Thabo Mbeki went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to present a proposal called the Millennium African Recovery Plan (MAP). After consulting with Senegal's President Aboulaye Wade, the plan became known as the New Africa Initiative (NAI). Mbeki then took the NAI to the Group of Eight (G8) Summit meeting in Genoa, Italy in July 2001. After reviewing the plan, the G8 leaders told the Africans to rewrite it to include more emphasis on "good governance" and invited them to the next summit in Kananaskis, Alberta (Canada) in June 2002. After consultations with the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the leaders of Nigeria and Algeria, President Mbeki released the New Partnership for African Development, or NEPAD. In Kananaskis the G8 leaders unveiled an 'Action Plan on Africa', committing themselves to engage with NEPAD.
The key priority of NEPAD was to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in energy, agriculture, communications, and human resources. NEPAD's supporters hoped that with an annual US$64 billion in public and private investment, a gross domestic product growth rate of 7 percent could be secured in participating countries. Under the terms of NEPAD, African countries guaranteed good governance in return for financial aid. To guard against corruption a system of peer review was proposed to monitor African countries' deployment of funds and progress toward good governance. The limitations of G8 support, nevertheless, soon became evident. Not only did the pledges of aid still fall far short of Africa's financing needs, but they would scarcely make up for the steady decline in aid to Africa since the mid-1990s. Any new money, moreover, would be highly conditional and restricted to those countries that meet the G8's political and economic criteria.
The responses of African NGOs, unions and intellectuals to NEPAD largely criticize its neo-liberal paradigm for being very much the language of the industrialized countries, particularly the G8. The "African Forum for Envisioning Africa: Focus on NEPAD" concludes, for example, that NEPAD follows the same neo-liberal principles that have come under heavy criticism by civil society worldwide, are responsible for increasing gaps between the rich and the poor and result in economic disasters. 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 marginalization of women and does not question the global economic system that, in the view of civil society, plays a major role in Africa's continued marginalization. With respect to Africa's external debt, NEPAD's proposal for debt relief represents a significant step backwards from what the Jubilee movement in Africa continues to demand: 100% cancellation of low-income country debts without structural adjustment conditions, plus the assessment and cancellation of illegitimate debts that have their origin in apartheid and military dictatorships. Many NGOs conclude that NEPAD is rather a continuation of the highly questionable Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP), now including privatization of public services such as water and electricity supply or health services.
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| COMMENTS |
Wed Sep 10 2008 |
The simple truth is that over 80% of the people living in the rural areas of Nigeria, knew nothing about NEPAD as such it is making no impact on them. |
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Tue Jun 12 2007 |
Please,i wish to know if NEPAD has actually impacted on the lives of Nigerians in particular and Africa at large as it concerns its goal of poverty eradication |
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Amobi Peter
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Awka
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Nigeria
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News |
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Mon Jul 09 2007
The grand debate: Accra Declaration
Fri Oct 31 2003
NEPAD bodies to merge into African Union
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Financing for Development
The opportunity that came up in Monterrey can turn into a road to nowhere without an injection of political will.
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A comprehensive list of resources from the United Nations and civil society organizations.
Patents and medicines
What about equal opportunities for developed and developing countries to obtain medicines their populations need?
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With the aim of revitalizing Africa’s place in the global political economy, African leaders, led by South African President Mbeki, see NEPAD as playing a prominent role in negotiations with the developed world and in positioning a specifically "developmental" agenda in international politics. Well received by the G8 and multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, this initiative has provoked many objections from civil society. The links included in this section are intended to present both visions on the matter.
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NEPAD: African Initiative, New Partnership?
The Permanent Missions of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa to the United Nations, in partnership with the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations and the International Peace Academy (IPA), hosted a meeting on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) in New York on 16 July 2002. The purpose of the meeting was to inform and focus the attention of the broader UN community on NEPAD. This report covers not only the discussions at the NEPAD meeting, but reflects additional research into relevant areas (pdf format).
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Is NEPAD the Answer to Africa's Problems?
During a three-day "African Forum for Envisioning Africa by African Scholars" in Nairobi, a section of civil society representatives and scholars said that Nepad lacked legitimacy as it was agreed upon by African presidents and sold to Western economic powers for funding without consulting citizens, parliaments and the civil society.
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African Civil Society Declaration on NEPAD
Members of social movements from Africa, meeting in Port Shepstone, South Africa, 4-8 July 2002 on the threshold of the launch of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development in Durban, critically examined NEPAD in the context of the struggles for Africa's development and emancipation.
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What future for the Southern African Development Community (SADC)?
Source: Pambazuka
Henning Melber
NEPAD stresses "the need for African countries to pool their resources and enhance regional development and economic integration to improve international competitiveness". But, according to the author, the emphasis on international competitiveness comes at the expenses of strengthening the local economy and the local people. Instead, integration in Africa should as a priority meet the socio-economic and environmental needs of its citizenries and not seek to turn even more into an export platform.
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African Union Watch: is Ecosocc a new deal?
Source: Pambazuka News
Charles Mutasa
The Africa Union, unlike its predecessor the OAU, seems determined to graduate from a “politicians club” to a people centered and driven regional organization. The ECOSOCC process is a historical opportunity for the formulation of a new social contract between African Governments and their people. Involving CSO’s in African Union endeavours is a positive move and is a way of involving ordinary citizens of Africa in decision and policy-making processes of issues that concern their daily lives. April 2005.
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South Africa's second primitive accumulation
Source: Third World Network Features
By Issa Shivji
This is the first of two articles on "primitive accumulation", understood as the process of acquiring capital through colonialism and forced labour. The authour argues that South Africa's economic prosperity was built on the segregation system known as "apartheid" and is now being reproduced in the rest of the African continent through investment and economic integration policies. June 2005.
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Economic report on Africa 2005: Meeting the challenges of unemployment and poverty in Africa
Source: Economic Commission for Africa
Poverty in Africa is substantially higher than in other developing regions. More enigmatic is that poverty in Africa is chronic and rising. The share of the total population living below the $1 a day threshold of 46 per cent is higher today than in the 1980s and 1990s—this despite significant improvements in the growth of African GDP in recent years. January 2006 (pdf version).
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African Integration in and For Civil Society: Bulletin 2
Source: UKZN - Centre for Civil Society, Durban
Mammo Muchie
Two obstacles remain as a sore preventing Africa from entering the phase of self-reliant development: irrational fragmentation from a casual tearing up of the continent into incoherent real estates of the Africans and dependence on donors to finance African development. The two are dialectically linked. Weak and fragmented states depend on external sources of aid largely unable and not often in a position to mobilise internal resources. Political fragmentation has created unviable economic entities. Conversely lack of success in economic development has created weak political structures, developments and so-called failed states. September 2007.
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