UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
E/ECA/CM.21/6 (Part II)
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On its part, the international community has also contributed to promoting
the implementation of UN- NADAF. Several bilateral and multilateral partners
have maintained or increased their support to ongoing reforms in the African
countries. The Tokyo International Conference on African Development, organized
by the Government of Japan in October 1993 and the Asia-Africa Forum held at
Bandung in December 1994, were important initiatives aimed at consolidating
the bases of wider international coopera-tion for the development of Africa.
As Africa's full partner in the implementation of UN-NADAF, the United Nations
system has under-taken to strengthen its coordinating and harmonization role
both within the framework of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force (UN-IATF)
and within the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). In its revised
system-wide action plan, the United Nations system has confirmed its resolve
to focus on the six priority areas of human resources development; food and
agricultural sector and agro- industries develop-ment; economic diversification;
growth with equity; enhancement of regional cooperation and integration; and
resource mobilization.
The Administrative Committee on Coordination also devoted its September 1994
session to the economic situation of Africa. Officials of the United Nations
system of agencies agreed to harmonize their programmes and coordinate their
efforts in mobilizing resources for Africa. To this effect, the Secretary-General
set up a mechanism under the responsibility of the Administrator of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This mechanism is made up of a lead group
which would be supported by the work of UN-IATF and an ad hoc secretariat comprising
UNDP, ECA, the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development
and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
As a regional player, ECA continued to perform its catalytic role in the implementation
of UN-NADAF and other regional programmes pursuing the same objectives. The
Commission intensified its advisory services to member States and its operational
activities focusing on the six priority areas of the System-wide Plan of Action.
C. Overall performance
9. Viewed against UN-NADAF objectives, more particularly in terms of GDP growth
and the mobiliza-tion of official development assistance (ODA), the results
achieved over the past four years have been far from satisfactory. GDP growth
in the region has remained very modest (2 per cent in 1991, 0.7 per cent in
1992, 1.1 per cent in 1993 and 2.5 per cent in 1994). The external debt burden
of Africa increased particularly for the middle-income countries which had the
greatest potential for development. To the fragility of the production system
can be added the weakness of institutions and lack of skills and basic infrastructural
facilities. The social situation has hardly improved and Africa remains the
only region of the world where mass poverty has continued to spread.
African economies are still characterized by a disjointed production structure,
low productivity and excessive dependence on the outside world. The efforts
of the African States to revive their economies have not always been appropriately
supported by the international community. ODA has stagnated at approximately
$17.4 billion - well below the level recommended in UN-NADAF. As for private
investment, the figure has declined by $3 billion per year on average from 1986-1990
to $2 billion in 1992 at a time when the new flow of private capital to developing
countries had reached $113 billion.
D. Conclusions
This brief overview of the economic situation of Africa, more than three years
after the adoption of UN-NADAF, constitutes a challenge to the African countries
and to the whole international community. It is therefore important, during
the review of the implementation of UN-NADAF at the coming session of the Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC), to work out concrete measures for attaining the
set objectives.
For that session of ECOSOC, a report is being prepared by the UN-IATF under
the supervision of the lead group mentioned earlier. That report will endeavour
to describe the situation in African countries relative to the objectives of
the programme regarding the assigned role of member States and that of the international
community. It will also contain a detailed analysis of efforts made by the United
Nations system and proposals for achieving revived growth and sustainable development.
VII. THE SEVENTEENTH EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE OAU COUNCIL
OF MINISTERS ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
ISSUES IN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
A. Introduction
The tremendous political as well as economic changes which have occurred in
the world over the past few years and the persistent socio-economic crisis in
Africa prompted African Ministers of Foreign Affairs to recommend the convening
of an extraordinary session of the OAU Council of Ministers solely devoted to
the review of Africa's economic and social issues. This recommendation was further
endorsed by the thirtieth session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government
held in Tunis, Tunisia in June 1994.
The main concern behind this initiative was to ensure that Africa takes the
required steps to reverse its economic decline and the marked tendency towards
its marginalization, in order to remain a credible partner in the world affairs.
When taking this decision, the Ministers made it clear that this extraordinary
session should not result in a general statement spelling out commitments which
would not be implemented, as in the past. Rather the outcome should be an actionable
agenda which African countries and their development partners must be able and
willing to implement. The purpose of this note is to review the preparations
for the session and its likely outcome.
As indicated above, the Ministers were of the view that, in order to make the
expected impact, the extraordinary session should not be a mere replication
of earlier gatherings on the economic situation in Africa, which achieved little
in terms of concrete and implemented measures. In particular, they felt that
the session should draw lessons from shortcomings which led to the inadequate
implementation of similar initiatives such as the Lagos Plan of Action, Africa's
Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER) and the United Nations Programme
of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development (UN-PAERD). The outcome
of the session was foreseen as a concise and action-oriented programme addressing
key issues compounding Africa's development and recommending immediately implementable
measures aimed at improving the situation. To this effect, a single document
would be presented to the session.
In pursuance of this clear directive, the Joint OAU/ECA/ADB Secretariat started,
as early as August 1994, the preparations for the extraordinary session. The
first task consisted of identifying the clusters around which the document would
be prepared. Then, the Joint Secretariat drafted a preliminary document entitled
"Towards relaunching the African development effort". This document
was revised on several occasions before it was submitted under the title "Report
of the Secretary-General to the special session of the Council of Ministers
on economic and social issues in African development" to a meeting of experts
of member States held in Addis Ababa in December 1994.
This report, including the amendments of the experts was presented to and reviewed
by the sixty-first ordinary session of the OAU Council of Ministers in January
1995. Subsequently, the Joint Secretariat began to draft a new document which
will draw from the previous one and which will conform to the initial request
of the Ministers in terms of actionable agenda, and which will be considered
by the extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers.
The second document was reviewed and revised at a meeting held in February 1995
in Cairo between the Joint Secretariat, Egypt (the host country of the extraordinary
session) and Tunisia (Current Chairman of OAU). This draft document, entitled
"Relaunching African economic and social development: The Cairo Agenda
for Action" was submitted for consideration, amendments and adoption to
a meeting of intergovernmental experts on 25 and 26 March 1995 and to the extraordinary
session on 27 and 28 March 1995, both in Cairo. The draft document was divided
into three parts, namely:
(a) What African countries can do for themselves;
(b) What they expect from their development partners; and
(c) What should be the follow-up mechanism.
In the first part, the main clusters of issues are governance, peace, stability
and development; food security; human resources development and capacity building;
effective mobilization and efficient utilization of domestic resources; and
regional economic cooperation and integration.
With respect to the international community, three issues have been raised with
practical and realistic proposals, namely the establishment of a genuine partnership
which takes into account Africa's main concerns; the debt overhang; and the
need to diversify Africa's commodities.
On the follow-up mechanism, although member States are entrusted with the primary
responsibility for the implementation of the Agenda, on several occasions it
calls upon the Joint Secretariat to provide all necessary support in the implementation
process.
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