Leaders insist African say vital in NEPAD

African leaders who held a daylong summit on Tuesday on the implementation of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) resolved the initiative must conform to continental aspirations to succeed.

"African ownership is central to the NEPAD process, which must be retained and strongly promoted so as to meet the legitimate aspirations of the African peoples," leaders said in the final communiqué at the end of the meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

In the document, made available to IRIN on Thursday, they said, "While the principle of partnership with the rest of the world was equally vital to this process, such partnership must be based on mutual respect, dignity, shared responsibility and mutual accountability."

The meeting brought together heads of state and representatives of 13 countries that form the implementation committee of NEPAD. Also in attendance were top officials of the Organisation of African Unity, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Concern had been widespread among participants over indications that Western countries, led by the United States, were considering withdrawing their commitments to NEPAD because of African support for the electoral process that returned Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, to power earlier this month. Western countries had condemned the polls as deeply flawed.

Furthermore, US President George Bush had said at the UN Conference on Financing Development, held a week earlier in Monterrey, Mexico, that development aid to poor countries, most of which are in Africa, should be tied to reforms including the opening up of their markets.

Apart from stressing the need for development processes that respect the dignity of poor countries in international partnerships, the NEPAD meeting threw its weight behind the establishment of an African Peer Review Mechanism under which African countries would undertake "self assessment" based on common indicators of democracy and good governance.

The summit identified key areas requiring priority attention to achieve accelerated development in Africa. These include agriculture and market access, infrastructure, capital flows and human development. A plan of action is due for presentation at the next meeting of the implementation committee.

The African leaders also spoke of centrality of peace and security to the continent’s development. After considering the report of a subcommittee on peace and security headed by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, the meeting set out focal areas. These include curbing the illicit circulations of weapons and small arms, as well as enhancing the capacity to deal with and resolve conflicts in the continent.