The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) secretariat could be relocated from South Africa to Ethiopia by the end of the year as part of a strategy to accelerate its integration into African Union structures, a move widely criticised by political commentators who fear that the continent’s recovery plan will be subsumed into AU bureaucracy.
Analysts fear that the AU, already battling with its own heavy structures, will not pay the requisite attention to Nepad and that incorporation could scare off already wary investors and donors.
Ross Herbert of the South African Institute of International Affairs said the AU does not have adequate machinery to handle Nepad and would make it less effective. He said those proposing its move could be motivated by ”national jealousy” and were taking a ”pointless swipe” at South Africa.
”South Africa takes a lot more interest in Nepad than other countries and it is only fair that they host its offices. The AU needs to get its own house in order and show its effectiveness first before taking more responsibility.
”Already Nepad is under pressure to deliver and moving it would cause disarray, which would result in some period of inactivity. The debate should not be about moving it from one place to the other but about how to make it more effective.”
A coalition of civil society groups was recently quoted in a Nigerian newspaper expressing concern that Nepad would disintegrate and that development partners such as the G8, European Union, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, which already have an established, reliable relationship with Nepad, would be confused about who to deal with.
”If this happens [integration], it will inevitably kill the enthusiasm of the people about this new vision to bring about sustainable development to Africa, because the vast majority of the people of Africa see Nepad as the symbol of a greater future of the continent,” they argued.
A senior South African government official told the Mail & Guardian that Nepad was the socio-economic programme of the AU and should not be seen to compete with it. ”How can a programme compete with its mother body? The decision to base it here also had to do with resources and logistics at the time because the AU did not have resources of its own.”
The Nepad heads of state summit in Algeria last year mandated a steering committee and the AU commission to ”look into” integrating Nepad into AU structures and processes. Nepad communications manager Thaninga Shope-Linne said agreement that Nepad would be located in South Africa for a three-year period had been reached in Maputo in 2003. She said the issue was no longer whether it would be integrated but how, and when, it would be done. The final decision will be taken at the AU heads of state summit in July.