Report by President Mbeki on the Panel Discussion on the International Community's Partnership with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)

UN General Assembly High Level Plenary Meeting on NEPAD, 16 September 2002

INTRODUCTION

1. I am pleased to present this brief report on the informal panel discussion on the theme "The international community's partnership with the New Partnership for Africa's Development" which was held this afternoon in parallel with the high level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

2. Let me thank the many participants, including the Heads of States and Government, Ministers, Heads of delegations and Ambassadors as well as heads and representatives of the agencies and organisations of the UN system as well as the Bretton Woods Institutions. In particular, I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow panellists President Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, and Mr. Ahmed Maher El Sayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, representing President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The panel was ably moderated by Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, Chairman of the United Nations Development Group.

3. The interactive discussion following the presentations by panellists was wide-ranging, and showed the considerable and continuing international commitments to NEPAD.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THE INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

4. Representatives of the member states reaffirmed the support of their governments to the implementation of NEPAD through committing resources, including debt reduction, increasing ODA, providing market access for African goods and services. However, they stressed the need for good governance, accountability, transparency and the rule of law in African countries. They underlined that good governance was critical to attracting investment. They also stressed the need for moving ahead with the implementation of NEPAD and called for broader international partnership in support of that effort. In this regard, the G8 Action Plan for Africa was cited as an example of the response of the international community to the implementation of NEPAD.

5. The need to engage international financial institutions was also stressed in the implementation of NEPAD. At the same time, the importance of African ownership in the successful implementation of NEPAD was also stressed. The need to deepen African ownership through the involvement of civil society, parliamentarians, academia and the private sector was also emphasised. It was recognised that the African civil society lacked the capacity to actively engage them in the debate on the NEPAD process. In this regard, the international community was called upon to help in building the capacity of civil society. It was also noted that African governments lacked critical capacities in certain areas.

6. The "African Peer Review Mechanism" was described as one of the most important and innovative mechanisms of NEPAD. However, issues were raised regarding how the peer review mechanism would work at the national and regional levels.

7. The agencies and organisations of the UN system expressed strong support for NEPAD. They underlined the fact that they have organised their activities in Africa to respond directly to the priorities of NEPAD. They highlighted the wide range of activities that their agencies had undertaken in support of NEPAD and pledged to use existing UN co-ordinating mechanisms, especially at the country level, in support of that effort. To enhance the impact of UN agencies in the implementation of NEPAD, there should be greater collaboration among UN agencies but also more resources need to be made available to enable UN agencies.

THE DRAFT DECLARATION

8. It remains for me to introduce the document A/57/L.2/Rev.1, the draft UN Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This draft declaration is sponsored by over 145 countries.

9. The draft declaration broadly embodies the spirit of support for NEPAD as reflected in the debate at the plenary meeting today. I commend the draft declaration for the consideration and adoption by the General Assembly.

10. Finally, I would like to express our deep appreciation for the decision of the General Assembly to hold the high-level plenary meeting on NEPAD today. And also to thank the President of the General Assembly, the Member States and the Secretary-General for their participation in today's meeting.