3/6/2005
More Support Needed to Unleash Africa’s Potential

Noting that previous development strategies for Africa have not fulfilled the promises made, the chairman of a special United Nations advisory panel on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) this week recommended greater and more focused investment and aid, wider debt relief and freer trade for African products.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, chair of the panel, brought the recommendations to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who appointed the 13 members last July.

The panel had arrived at a double central conclusion, Chief Anyaoku said.

“ NEPAD cannot succeed without a significant increase in support from the international community” and “unleashing Africa’s potential for development requires harnessing the creativity and dynamism of private initiative in a range of areas, including agriculture, industry, science and technology, and infrastructure development,” he said.

While African countries themselves had major obligations to increase investments in those areas, targeted international aid and other forms of support could be of great help, Chief Anyaoku said.

Success could not be measured by the number of consultations, meetings and plans alone, but by concrete outcomes, he added. “ People’s lives must change,” he says. “International support must yield results-based action that unleashes Africa’s human potential and the economic potential of the formal and informal private sector.”

Donors should target African countries with good policy environments, coordinate their interventions better, align them with poverty-reduction strategies, provide more aid as grants and make long-term commitments, according to the report.

The money saved by the recommended cancellation of debt should be channelled to the development objectives in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000, which advocate reducing or eliminating a spectrum of socio-economic ills by 2015, the report says.

African countries that are net exporters of agricultural goods would benefit from the reduction of domestic agricultural subsidies in the European Union and the United States, it says.

As African countries improve their investment climates, with the help of donor countries and multilateral agencies, developed countries should encourage more foreign direct investment (FDI) in and private remittances to Africa.

The report notes the increase in the number of governments that are democratically elected and added that two dozen countries were agreeing to be scrutinized under NEPAD’s African Peer Review Mechanism.