28/9/2011 – “At the heart of these regional engagements is the urgent
need for Africa to address the current aid architecture and its
implications for Africa’s development,” said Ibrahim Assane Mayaki,
Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency
(NEPAD Agency) at the opening of the third Africa regional meeting on
development effectiveness. The meeting is taking place between the
28th and 30th of September 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“From the first and second Africa regional meetings, through the
launch of the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness and also
through this third engagement, Africa has articulated its priorities
resulting in the African consensus and position in the run up to the
upcoming 4th High Level Forum on Aid effectiveness in Busan, South
Korea,” said Mayaki.
The overall objective of this third regional meeting is to validate
the common African position on development effectiveness with regard
to shaping the post-Busan agenda focusing on aid reforms.
In his remarks, Mr. Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African
Union Commission (AUC) insisted on “the unequivocal inclusion of the
regional dimension in the new global partnership for development
effectiveness.”
He went on to remind the participants at the meeting that aid should
be seen as one source of development finance which should complement
our efforts at achieving growth and wealth creation in Africa.
It is also in this regard that Jennifer Kagrbo, Deputy Executive
Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UN-ECA) called upon the meeting to adopt the “development
effectiveness framework as an approach to help minimise aid dependence
and to prioritise the investments that strengthen the national
capacities and build on alternative sources of development funding”.
In line with this appeal towards processes at the national level,
Dalmas Otieno, Kenya’s Minister of State for Public Service emphasised
that development effectiveness, aid effectiveness and any form of
effectiveness must begin at the national level in order to ensure
buy-in and broader success at the national and continental levels.
He also called upon the political leadership of the continent to
collectively prioritise Africa’s needs and to get behind one vision as
in the case of the African position on aid reforms.
Eugene Owusu, the UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Ethiopia
reminded the gathering that in the process of building capacity for
aid reform, Africa should “examine how support goes towards nurturing
and strengthening the capacity of nations to plan long-term while
allowing them to respond in the short term in times of crisis”.
The third Africa regional meeting on development effectiveness is
being co-organised by the AUC and the NEPAD Agency in partnership with
UN-ECA, UNDP and the African Development Bank with the leadership of
African Governments. GIZ, UN Women, Trust Africa, Open Society
Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and Oxfam GB are supporting this
engagement.
Ends
Africa’s key priorities for development effectiveness include:
i. The unfinished Aid
Effectiveness agenda;
ii. Capacity for
Development Effectiveness;
iii. South-South Cooperation;
iv. Regional dimension of
Development Effectiveness;
v. Mobilising Africa’s
domestic resources to move “Beyond Aid” and the move;
vi. Towards a new
development cooperation architecture.
For more information, please contact:
NEPAD Agency: Andrew Kanyegirire Email:
andrewk@nepad.org
About the NEPAD Agency
The NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (the NEPAD Agency), is a
technical body and development vehicle of the African Union (AU). The
NEPAD Agency is responsible for the implementation of the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a strategic framework
for pan-African socio-economic development.
In order to address critical challenges facing the continent, the
NEPAD Agency facilitates and coordinates development programmes and
projects, pushing for partnerships, resource mobilisation, research
and knowledge management.
Prior to February 2010, the NEPAD Secretariat was responsible for
developing plans and procedures under the NEPAD framework. Since then,
the Secretariat has been integrated into AU structures and processes,
providing it with a legal mandate to implement NEPAD projects and
programmes.
www.nepad.org