As 41^st meeting of NEPAD Steering Committee opens

22 January 2011, Addis Ababa – On the opening day of the 41^st edition the NEPAD Steering Committee, Ibrahim Mayaki, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), presented a report that focused on the achievements being made in the roll-out of NEPAD projects in critical areas such as agriculture, health, capacity development and infrastructure.   

Speaking a year after the 14th African Union (AU) Summit decision on the integration of NEPAD into the AU and the establishment of the NEPAD Agency, the CEO revealed that the NEPAD Agency had completed the adoption of AU rules and that emphasis was now on the implementation of programmes.

“Twenty three countries have signed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compacts. And the NEPAD high-level sub-committee on infrastructure which comprises Heads of State and Government from South Africa, Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal is already identifying key regional projects,” he said.

Mayaki said the Agency had made progress in the area of education through a project in Kenya on “training of teachers and educators in mathematics”. The project is to be replicated in other countries.

On health, the NEPAD Agency CEO revealed that advancements had been made in the set-up of a continental regulatory framework on pharmaceutical markets through the “African Medicines Regulation Harmonisation (AMRH)”.

Speaking at the opening, Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs at the African Union Commission, said that the integration of NEPAD into the AU was increasingly being realised through the alignment of the work of the NEPAD Agency towards the AU structures, priorities and processes.

“It is in this regard that the NEPAD Agency has assisted the AUC in the preparation of African positions at the global level – at the G8 and at engagements concerning the follow-up on global commitments to Africa”, he added.

Abdoulie Janneh, the United Nations (UN) Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), who hosted the meeting, told the Committee on Saturday that NEPAD processes had strengthened intra-African cooperation in the development of joint-programmes and had also contributed to the deepening of Africa’s regional integration agenda.

Janneh indicated that whilst the first NEPAD decade was spent on “programme design, developing partnerships, and aligning institutional partnerships,” he was now looking forward to a “NEPAD decade where emphasis would be placed on implementation and delivering on NEPAD results”.

Members of the NEPAD Steering Committee also received report-backs from Prof. David Abdulai, Executive Director of the Graduate School of Business Leadership at UNISA who spoke about the work being done on institutional development of fragile states through the NEPAD Africa-wide Capacity Development Strategic Framework.

Jay Naidu, Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) revealed that GAIN and the NEPAD Agency were close to signing an agreement “through which they would develop a five year programme to support national investment programmes that can fully integrate nutrition security into CAADP”.

The 41^st edition the NEPAD Steering Committee, which is being held between 22 – 23 January, is chaired by Newai Gebreab, Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.  

The NEPAD Steering Committee (SC) is composed of Personal Representatives of African Leaders who form the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC). The SC members are responsible for overseeing the work and programmatic activities of the NEPAD Agency and they report to the NEPAD HSGOC.

For more information and to arrange for interviews, please contact:

NEPAD Agency: Andrew Kanyegirire, Tel.: +251(0)922 114 630 / +27-83-704-4506, Email: andrewk@nepad.org

About the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency: The NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) as the technical body of the African Union www.africa-union.org, works closely with the African Union Commission (AUC), regional economic communities, national governments, civil society and the private sector to push for programmes and projects that focus on improving the lives of the African people. The NEPAD Agency is the leading African development expert, able to mobilise the private sector, heads of state and African people as a force for positive change, building continental prosperity and regional integration. For more information, go to: www.nepad.org