Conflict resolution, good governance key to development

Conflict resolution and good governance are some of the key impediments to investment in Africa, participants said at a NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) conference in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

The conference which closed on Wednesday, was attended by more than 900 delegates, including 20 African leaders and representatives from big business groups including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Coca-Cola and Chevron, sources reported. Its main objective, organisers said, was to provide an opportunity for dialogue between the private sector and African leaders so as to encourage investments in a new, transparent strategic partnership with global business and the developed world.

The event included workshops held to develop proposals for investment in education, health, infrastructure, energy environment, access to developed markets and good governance. The proposals will be discussed further at the G8 summit in Canada in June.

President Omar Bongo of Gabon, speaking during the opening on Monday, said the fundamental problem of conflicts, resulting from weak political and economic structures in Africa, created instability that deterred investors.

Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Daniel Moi of Kenya expressed optimism over the idea of NEPAD, while the World Bank Vice- President Calisto Madavo pledged the support of his institution. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said last week that NEPAD was a plan "of extraordinary vision and immense realism" which Canada would support as a partner.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the new partnership between the public and private sectors could halve the number of people living in poverty in Africa by the year 2015, while US President George Bush sent a message commending the conference.

Obasanjo, and Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, were the architects of NEPAD, which aims to end poverty, put the continent on a path to growth and development, and promote active participation in the world economy.

African leaders endorsed it during the annual OAU summit in 2001.

[Detailed information about NEPAD and the Dakar conference can be found at http://www.nepad.org/]

The Dakar meeting was one of a series of NEPAD-related encounters that have been held in various African capitals in recent months, including a one-day regional seminar in Yaounde, Cameroon, on 11 April. Organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the seminar provided participants with a forum to learn and exchange information about the partnership.

NEPAD "marks a real willingness for Africa to take its destiny into its hands and to formulate choices for its future", Bruno Bekolo Ebe, a professor at the University of Yaounde II, said. For him, NEPAD would allow Africa to pick up where the international community has failed. The continent, he said, should rely on its wealth and resources as much as it does on foreign aid.

Participants listed insecurity, corruption, lack of individual liberties and oppressive political climate as obstacles that threaten efforts such as NEPAD to spur African development. Such hurdles, they said, will not be easy to overcome, including corruption. "How can we do it while civil servants are not well paid?" UN Development Programme Chief Economist Mamadou Amadou told participants. Governments need to address the issue because in so doing so, they would also alleviate the continent's brain drain.

The participants, who included representatives of academia, civil society and the private sector, agreed that parliamentarians have an important role to play in ensuring that their nations support NEPAD and that the public understand its importance. An example of the public's misunderstanding was the confusion between NEPAD and the African Union (to replace the Organization of African Unity at the next summit of heads of state). The African Union is a political organisation of sovereign states aiming towards integration, while NEPAD represents a specific economic plan of action, it was stated.

The seminar followed a two-day meeting of the experts commission of the Centre for Sub-Regional Development in Central Africa, a body linked to the ECA. Participating countries included Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe.