United Nations Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa's Development, 16 September 2002

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

The General Assembly
Adopts the following declaration

United Nations Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)

1. We, the Heads of State and Government and Heads of Delegations participating in the high-level plenary meeting held on 16 September 2002, considered how to support the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which is a programme of the African Union. This meeting forms part of the Final Review and Appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa (UN-NADAF) at this 57th session of the General Assembly.

2. We reaffirm our commitment to the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the internationally agreed development goals, as the embodiment of our collective desire for and aspiration to a better world in which all peoples can live in dignity and peace.

3. We recommit ourselves to meeting the special needs of Africa as recognised in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted in September 2000, the Ministerial Declaration of the Substantive Session of ECOSOC in July 2001, the Monterrey Consensus adopted in March 2002 and the Plan of Implementation adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002.

4. We welcome the New Partnership for Africa's Development, as an African Union-led, -owned and -managed initiative and recognise that it is a serious commitment to address the aspirations of the continent, as decided by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity, at its thirty-seventh ordinary session, held at Lusaka from 9 to 11 July 2001.

5. We welcome the commitment of African countries to take effective and concrete measures, including through the establishment of various institutional mechanisms and the development of strategies for the implementation of NEPAD. This commitment reflects the recognition that the primary responsibility for the implementation of NEPAD rests with the African governments and peoples.

6. We affirm that international support for the implementation of NEPAD is essential. While acknowledging the support so far expressed or provided for NEPAD, we urge the United Nations system and the international community, in particular donor countries, to assist with the implementation of NEPAD.

7. We call on the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the General Assembly for the Final Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s to consider how the United Nations will structure its support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development and take decisions to this effect.