Address by the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, at the work-in-progress review workshop of NEPAD, Johannesburg, 24 January 2002

Mr Amara Essy, Secretary General of the OAU
The Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni Metro, Councillor Duma Nkosi
Minister of Health of Mali, the Honourable Dr Nafo
Members of the South African Cabinet
Chief Executives of Regional Economic Committees
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Personal Representatives of Heads of States of the Implementation Committee
Presenters and Delegates:

I am very pleased to be among such eminent analysts, development practitioners, and distinguished delegates and representatives from all over our continent and indeed the world.

I believe that the commitment of all who are present and who have travelled from afar to be here is indicative of the positive sentiments towards the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the widespread support among Africans for this plan.

In a similar vein, we must recognise that we have great expectations of the outcomes of this gathering. It must serve to prioritise and concretise implementation and put the processes in place for the realisation of our development plans.

Clearly, this is not the first time Africans have come together for the renewal of this continent. Throughout the last century and even prior to this period, various Africans played their parts in organising nations and continents in support of African development.

Political leaders, economists, doctors, philosophers and poets have contributed in analysing the African reality, putting forward programmes of action and dreaming of a great African future. The resultant initiatives have met at times with varying degrees of success and often with failure in a climate that was hostile to African unity and African prosperity, a reality characterised by Africans reduced to cheap labour and an Africa seen only as a source of raw materials for the developed world.

Yet it was under these circumstances that for instance, Edward Blyden, one of our foremost Pan-Africanists, promoted the idea of Africans taking possession of their lives, owning their future.

In an address to the Liberian College in 1881, Blyden said the following:

"The African must advance by methods of his own. We must possess a power distinct from that of the European."

"...We must show that we are able to go alone, to carve out our own way."

This dream of 1881, three years before Africa was carved up at the Berlin Conference, was not one that could be realised in the century that ensued, that saw the entrenchment of colonialism, racism and neo-colonialism, with African economies becoming dependent on the metropolitan countries and the destruction of the productive capacity of African peoples to work in their own interests and for their own gain.

The impoverishment of the African people resulted in battles for survival and for scarce resources among different groups. The conflicts we have experienced led to Africa being defined as a place of wars, disease, dictatorships and hunger with political leaders being unable to unite the people in practical and sustained ways behind common goals and objectives.

Afro-pessimism pervaded to the extent that there are those who would say that we have forfeited our right as Africans to dream, to hope, to speak and to plan for a better life.

There are those even now who will argue that the hopes for an African renaissance are ill-founded and that Africa cannot guarantee her own future.

Yet, clearly, the latter half of the twentieth century has seen a new attitude among Africans who now choose to see themselves as activists for change, who are reclaiming their place as equals among other humans, who walk a common continent and world proud of who they are and confident of their abilities for self-development.

This new confidence and this new African emerges out of an Africa that has largely moved to genuine independence and democracy, where the colonial system has been liquidated, where efforts are focused on the ending of conflicts and the attainment of peace and stability, where the consciousness exists that Africa's economic and social upliftment is dependent on African unity and African peoples and countries working together to fortify themselves and insert themselves favourably in a world economy from which they have largely been excluded as global players.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development answers Blyden's call for African ownership, African possession, and asserts that Africans can and must advance by methods of their own and indeed are able "to carve out our own way."

It is premised on recognition that Africa has an abundance of natural resources and people who have the capacity to be agents for change and so holds the key to her own development.

The New Partnership is unique in African history in that African leaders have pledged to co-operate and be accountable to one another and to their people in terms of the development strategy, plans and delivery of programmes.

For the first time perhaps, an implementation strategy exists led by the leaders and not simply delegated to officials, so that genuine progress can be made.

Through the organising of NEPAD into an implementation committee, a steering committee and a secretariat, there is in place a clear leadership and management structure with the necessary professional expertise that is capable of dealing with political issues and technical issues competently and efficiently.

Moreover, we have established a governing structure and put Heads of State in charge, where leaders must account to their counterparts at summits and interact with their development partners in industrialised countries. There is also the overall accountability to the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) for the NEPAD initiative and the guidance that comes from the OAU on how to take forward this plan.

We have to highlight the approval of NEPAD by the OAU Heads of State and Government summit in Lusaka last year, followed by endorsement by African scholars. The interest of ordinary Africans in this initiative has also been awakened and this inculcates in everyone a consciousness that the NEPAD initiative exists ultimately to better the lives of the African people and thus must be accountable to them.

The interaction with the developed countries even prior to the formation of the Implementation Committee has resulted in NEPAD being high on the agenda at international gatherings, having received warm reception in July 2001 in Geneva at the UN ECOSOC Ministerial meeting, receiving endorsement from the G8 in Genoa who promptly appointed a Committee to work with NEPAD countries, receiving strong support from the EU in Brussels in October 2001 which included agreement to support infrastructure and capacity building.

NEPAD once more received attention at the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in December of last year. In addition, the Nordic countries have committed themselves to supporting NEPAD, especially through the financing of specific priority projects.

The Tokyo Agenda for action and the Beijing Declaration have also given clear support to African development, ensuring the participation of these regions in NEPAD processes.

Statements by President Bush in July last year to the World Bank have clearly articulated that there must be a rethinking of the financing of education and health in developing countries in the form of loans and this realisation is important for the human development aspects of NEPAD; while Prime Minister Tony Blair especially in the post September 11 period has come out in support of African Development

The intense work carried out by African heads of state has succeeded in generating hope and confidence in the future of our continent and in attaining acceptance of NEPAD as a policy framework informing the way they view African development.

This workshop takes on even more significance since we now have an urgent responsibility to develop implementable plans, to ensure that the excellent programmes and policies that exist on paper succeed in practice, that African technical expertise from within Africa and the diaspora is harnessed to convert those programmes and policies into practical and implementable programmes and projects, that the African people come to own these programmes as belonging to them.

We are privileged to have in our midst the secretariat of the OAU of which NEPAD is an initiative and to which it annually shall report at the summits of the African Union. We meet here over the next few days conscious that we are managing NEPAD on behalf of them and mindful that our work takes place within the principles of the OAU and to underpin the political union. For the African Union to succeed there must be in place a development programme that will accelerate economic integration and the reduction of poverty levels; thus the New Partnership as a process complements the activities towards the African Union.

We are pleased that representatives of the African Development Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and ECA (the Economic Commission for Africa) are present at this workshop, all of whom have pledged technical support to NEPAD in its implementation phase.

The presence of delegates from regional economic structures as well as Africa-wide structures and international development institutions indicates that for the first time on this continent technical capacity is being mobilised around this initiative and to guarantee its success.

We must also acknowledge the support from global institutions for NEPAD who are represented here and the importance we place upon sharing this experience with global partners and institutions.

This plan must look at the measures that Africa must take in detailed fashion:

• to ensure that a climate for economic growth is established throughout the continent;
• that security exists for the people of these countries
• that measures for good governance are put in place through which our governments as accountable to their peoples;
• that best practices are agreed upon and put in place for economic and political governance.

We must do these things because we owe this to our people. Our ability to possess a reality and a future is dependent on the conditions existing for its success, on resources being utilised to attain these goals.

Our plan would be incomplete if we were not to focus on areas of human development. In this regard we must focus on:

• Our ability to deal with communicable diseases among other things, (Prof Jeffrey Sachs WHO "Commission on Macroeconomics and Health");
• Empowering our people through education,
• Putting in place essential infrastructure for human development.

There is an urgent need for infrastructure investment including in ICTs so as to reduce the cost of doing business in Africa, among other things. In this way, we aim to reverse the increased marginalisation of the continent during the period of globalisation. Our economic development is also dependent on increasing our competitiveness in the world economy.

This workshop must produce concrete plans in these critical areas that are acceptable to all of us and viewed as implementable.

We will not have achieved all our goals if we do not focus on matters of trade and finance, with special attention to African access to markets and trade flows.

We are faced with a global reality where the present financial architecture makes it difficult for developing countries especially in Africa to attract capital, where the debt burden partly stems from unequal relations.

This gathering will have to work out concrete implementable plans that must influence the financing of development, and detailed programmes that must be promoted within Africa so that we mobilise more resources from ourselves and our own budgets and also negotiate for other sources with international institutions.

Clearly, our continent has resources that must be unleashed, but these will have to be coupled with the participation of our development partners in these processes, so that we use this programme to engage development partners in accepting our programmes as the basis for growth.

The forthcoming "Financing for Development Conference" in Mexico in March this year requires that we be prepared to take our agenda to this meeting.

The World Summit for Sustainable Development to be held here in Johannesburg in August affords us the opportunity to state our case, what we are doing, and what we think ought to be done in conjunction with our development partners and other countries of the world.

Only in these ways shall we be able to say that we are being proactive implementers of our own sustained development, that truly we are making steady advances in the realisation of an African renaissance.

If we cannot unite through an initiative that can permanently reshape this continent and bring about sustained improvement in the lives of our people, then we would have lost an opportunity that will not arise for some time.

We have generated so much excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment for NEPAD, for Africa, for world development that we dare not fail in our tasks.

As African institutions and expertise, it is only through you that this continent can succeed in overcoming past injustices and failures and make this the century of African development and prosperity.

The burden now rests on your shoulders. The masses of our people, our governments and our development partners await the results of this workshop and anticipate the plans that must forever change their lives and enable all of us as Africans to carve our own way in the world.

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency

24 January 2002