A three-day World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting opening in South Africa on Wednesday will evaluate ways to move Africa’s ambitious rescue plan off the drawing board and into concrete actions, organisers say.
At least seven heads of state, including two of the architects of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), will gather in Durban for the annual get-together to discuss the economic realities of the continent.
”Key leaders from across Africa will gather in Durban with a clear common cause — to move Nepad from the drawing board into concrete action under the theme of ‘Harnessing the Power of Partnership’,” the WEF said in a statement released in Geneva.
The Durban gathering between African state leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal — two of the architects of the plan — business, civil society and overseas business leaders involved in Africa, follows a G8 meeting of the world’s most powerful nations which ended earlier this
month.
At the G8 meeting, held at the French alpine resort of Evian, African leaders won the promise of aid and investment, but the group of eight of the world’s powerful nations demanded proof from Nepad countries that the situation on the continent was improving.
They want to see economic stability and the promotion of democracy — two of the basic premises of Nepad — before handing out some six billion dollars in aid pledged at last year’s G8 meeting in Kananaskis, Canada.
Haiko Alfeld, the WEF’s director for Africa, said he believed the Durban meeting was taking place at a critical moment in the continent’s evolution.
Said Alfeld: ”The summit is about action. It’s good to talk, but we need clear and realistic time frames for a roll-out, action and review.”
”It is the key leaders, from all sectors of society, taking part in this summit who can deliver on the promise of the Nepad, and we intend helping them to do this,” he added.
Adopted by African heads of state in Abuja in October 2001, Nepad aims to rework the relationship between Africa and the developed world from one of beggar-philanthropist to equal partners with a common goal — developing the continent not as an act of charity but for the sake of global prosperity and security.
The plan sets out an annual gross domestic product growth rate of more than seven percent for the next 15 years and aims to reduce the number of Africans living in extreme poverty by half by 2015.
The Durban meeting aims at finding a blueprint for so-called ”African Tiger Economies” reintegration into the global economy, bridging the digital divide and fighting the scourge of Aids, the WEF statement says, wuthout naming the countries involved.
”Creating an environment conducive to entrepreneurship, investment and innovation is critical if Africa is to achieve sustained growth,” it says.
”The report will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the leading African economies on the basis of in-depth analysis of regional trends and country profiles, making it an effective tool to help guide development priorities and investment decisions.”
The European Union pledged some one billion dollars a year to fight Aids in Africa in response to a recent announcement by US President George Bush of $15-billion over five years to combat the pandemic on the continent and in the Caribbean.
The conference, which ends Friday, is also expected to be adressed by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Madagascar’s Marc Ravalomanana.
Last year’s meeting ended with the African heads of state attending pledging their support for Nepad and business leaders endorsing the plan. – Sapa-AFP