Information courtesy of the NEPAD Secretariat

South Africa spells out its role in NEPAD and a road map for the future

South Africa, in collaboration with key African countries, has been at the forefront in developing NEPAD as Africa's premier development programme, in mobilising international, continental and regional support for NEPAD and in supporting the NEPAD structures and processes, said South Africa's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Suzette van der Merwe, when she opened the NEPAD Projects Conference: Strengthening Partnerships for Implementation, in Sandton on 8 October 2007.

The NEPAD Implementation Strategy for South Africa (NISSA), she said, "will serve as a road map, working in partnership with the private sector and civil society to realise the developmental objectives of both the country and the continent".

Discussing the implementation of NEPAD in South African foreign policy, the Deputy Minister said:

While NEPAD is foremost a partnership between and among Africans, it also seeks to accelerate sustainable development in Africa through partnerships with other countries of the South, and to forge a new partnership with the developed North that changes the unequal relationship with Africa.

To this end, NEPAD serves as the implementing vehicle for the international commitments in support of Africa's development.

In order for NEPAD to maximise its effectiveness and impact continentally, it needs to be integrated into the African Union

This will send out a strong international signal that NEPAD is the endorsed socio-economic programme of the AU. It will further strengthen the mandate and programmes of action of the AU.

On the role of national governments in the implementation of NEPAD, she said:

In terms of country-level ownership of its economic development, national governments play a central role in the implementation of NEPAD.

The NEPAD Secretariat identifies the critically important functions of national governments as:

• Internalising NEPAD values and principles, with an emphasis on ownership of the development process and increased self-reliance;
• Deepening engagement with the private sector and civil society with respect to NEPAD programmes;
• Accelerating the adoption of NEPAD programmes as frameworks and guidelines for national development plans, such as Poverty Reduction Strategies;
• Ensuring compliance with major African Union and Regional Economic Community (REC) resolutions linked to the implementation of NEPAD programmes; and
• Ensuring that the country takes advantage of international support mobilised for growth and development, for example through the G-8 Africa Action Plan.

In preparing South Africa's national implementation strategy, we have taken all these elements into cognisance.

On the definition of a NEPAD project, the Deputy Minister said:

To roll-out NISSA effectively, it is equally important for all concerned to have a common working definition of what constitutes a NEPAD project.

This is important as there has been much misunderstanding as to what constitutes a NEPAD project and whether it has made any impact in achieving its stated objectives.

The determination of the success factors of NEPAD is thus dependent on an understanding in the first instance as to what constitutes such a project.

A national NEPAD project is defined as a flagship project that supports the goals, principles and vision of NEPAD. It must focus on development and impact positively on people on the ground.

It also has to have the potential to be expanded into a regional and/or continental project and must be formally accredited and presented as a NEPAD project to make it visible and relevant to the people.

Finally, it must be captured on a central database and driven and monitored on an ongoing basis.

On the development of NEPAD implementation strategies, Deputy Minister van der Merwe said:

If we look at the trend on the continent, it is clear that over the past four years, NEPAD projects have developed around critical sectors. These include:

• The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme;
• The Short-Term Action Plan for Infrastructure Development;
• The Science and Technology Consolidated Action Plan;
• The Environment Plan;
• The AU/NEPAD Health Strategy;
• The Education Action Plan;
• The Tourism Action Plan;
• Standards and guidelines for the African Peer Review Mechanism;
• Facilitation of some of the AU's peace-support operations; and
• The Africa Productive Capacity Initiative.

Referring to the linkage of NEPAD to local economic development, the Deputy Minister said:

According to a guideline prepared by the World Bank, ".local economic development is the process by which public, business and nongovernmental sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation. The aim is to improve the quality of life for all".

In this process of finding an alignment between the local economic development programmes and the regional development programmes, it is clear that the private sector can play a valuable role in bridging the gap between national and regional programmes.

In concluding her opening address, Deputy Minister van der Merwe said:

As a long-term development programme, critical success factors for NEPAD include the following: enhanced political leadership; ownership by the people of Africa; strengthening institutional, human and financial capacity of national, regional and continental development institutions; and increased support by the international community.

In looking forward therefore, it is crucial that:

• We should strengthen our efforts to accelerate the implementation of NEPAD programmes, maintaining both an internal and an external focus;
• The linkages to NEPAD be established at the national level to ensure that NEPAD is made relevant and has a positive impact on the quality of life of all; and
• A close interface be defined and maintained between NEPAD and the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), considering the latter as the regional face of NEPAD.

Minister of Trade and Industry stresses commitment to NEPAD and African countries

South Africa is committed to NEPAD and ensuring that it is able to place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process, and enhance Africa's full and beneficial integration into the global economy.

These were the words of South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, when he addressed the gala dinner for delegates to the NEPAD Projects Conference held in Sandton on 8-9 October 2007.

Other points made by the Minister were:

It is because of the strength of South Africa's economy that we have a crucial responsibility and opportunity to become key partners in the formation of a new economy for Africa.

South Africa has invested significantly in Africa's oil and gas industry, information and communication technologies, retail, banking, entertainment and tourism industries.

The most recent economic data shows that low rates of growth in Africa in the late 1990s have been overturned and we saw a 5.1 per cent increase in Africa's real gross domestic in both 2004 and 2005. This outperformed the world average of 3.3 per cent by nearly 2 per cent.

Following this impressive performance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted a growth rate of 5.8 per cent in 2006, driven primarily by Africa's oil producers where growth is likely to be in the region of 6.9 per cent. These positive economic developments were underpinned by the lowest rate of average inflation in 25 years.

It is not surprising then that a recent survey showed that a majority of Africans are optimistic about the future: in fact, no other people in the world showed the same or higher level of optimism.

The South African Government would like to see all South African investment, including that of the private sector make a positive contribution to the economic development and industrialisation of the continent.

The NEPAD Business Foundation has developed a voluntary code of conduct for business which should be supported. The South African Government believes that the country's private sector has an exceptional opportunity to partake in achieving the vision of NEPAD.

Successful NEPAD Projects Conference identifies many opportunities

By John Rocha, Consultant to the NEPAD Secretariat

Representatives of about 70 government departments, 140 private sector representatives and more than 50 civil society participants attended the NEPAD Projects Conference in Sandton on 8-9 October 2007, hosted by the NEPAD Secretariat in co-operation with the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry and the NEPAD Business Foundation.

The conference was officially opened by Mandisi Mphalwa, Minister of Trade and Industry.

Other distinguished guests included Mrs Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration, Mrs Suzette van der Merwe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Augusto Tomás Salomão, Executive Secretary of SADC, Prof. Firmino Mucavele, Chief Executive of the NEPAD Secretariat, Prof. Wiseman Nkuhlu, Presidential Advisor on NEPAD, Amb. Abdul Minty, Deputy Director-General and Presidential Advisor on NEPAD, and the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongokulu Ndugane.

The private sector was represented by Dr. Reuel Khoza, Chairman of the NEPAD Business Foundation and other eminent personalities.

The conference reaffirmed the strategic significance of NEPAD as a platform to mobilise all Africans, at an individual and institutional level, to work together to eradicate poverty and to set the continent on a path of sustainable economic growth and development. The conference reiterated the fact that the imperatives that led to the launch of NEPAD remain as relevant today as they were in 2001.

To realise the NEPAD vision there was general consensus among participants of the need to scale-up implementation to make NEPAD meaningful in the life of ordinary citizens.

The private sector and civil society in South Africa were called upon to strengthen their partnerships with the South Africa Government as well as other regional and continental institutions such as SADC, NEPAD and the African Union in order to achieve the objectives of regional and continental integration.

The conference identified numerous opportunities within South Africa and beyond in the NEPAD priority sectors -- agriculture, water and sanitation, infrastructure, ICT, education, health, science and technology, trade and investment as well as environment and tourism.

The spatial development approach and the establishment of transfrontier parks were particularly highlighted as useful vehicles to unlock the economic potential of the continent and to further strengthen the linkages between the South African economy and the rest of the region, and the continent.

The discussions emphasised the need for a more pro-active approach by the South African private sector in terms of:

• local economic development, through participation in cross-border programmes, such as growth corridors and transfrontier conservation and development areas;
• the implementation of South Africa's APRM Programme of Action in all four thematic areas -- democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance and socio-economic development;
• the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Based on the imperative to translate the outcomes of the conference into concrete deliverables, the NEPAD Secretariat, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Trade and Industry, and the NEPAD Business Foundation were tasked with the responsibility of designing a way forward.