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Friday, February 4, 2011

Janneh demands attention to global challenges to Africa’s development planning


The UN Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Abdoulie Janneh, last week in Addis Ababa called on Africa’s development practitioners to factor global challenges into the continent’s development planning process.
In an opening remark at the 41st meeting of the new partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD) Steering Committee which opened on January 24, Janneh said since Africa would be impacted by the undeniable risk of climate change, rising energy and food prices, looming currency crisis and issues of sovereign debts, the continent must remain alert and plan how best to protect its encouraging growth.
Mr. Janneh said the first NEPAD decade had been dedicated to embedding the philosophical framework underpinning the principles of ownership and leadership of African development process by focusing on programme design, partnerships and institutional structures.

The second decade of NEPAD, he said, should now lay emphasis on implementation and delivering development results.
“In this regard, the Steering Committee needs to lead the way in creating a more results-oriented approach that will enable vigorous assessment of progress in implementation of NEPAD programmes,” he said.
Janneh said ECA would continue to collaborate with NPCA through direct assistance to the agency’s internal management processes and NEPAD strategic frameworks and development programme.
Citing ECA’s weekly newsletter, NEPAD Today, Mr. Janneh said the Commission has a channel to routinely update thousands of subscribers on NEPAD programme activities while providing technical support to the African peer review mechanism (APRM) and the knowledge management activities of the NEPAD Agency.
Rendering a progress report on the activities of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) for the period July-December 2010, the Agency’s CEO, Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said the implementation of the NEPAD programme had been re-energized with the successful integration of NEPAD into the structures and processes of the African Union.
He said the transition from NEPAD Secretariat to the NEPAD Agency had given opportunity space for the new agency to focus on delivering on the “AU-NEPAD vision and its implementation-focused mandate”.
Dr. Mayaki later gave a progress report with special mention of the CAADP compacts, which have been signed by 22 African countries; the regional infrastructure initiative; various cooperation agreements with strategic partners; NPCA’s Rural Futures Programme, the AU-NEPAD capacity development programme and NEPAD’s continued partnership with the UN system in the framework of the Regional Coordination Mechanism. Source: APO

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