DECISION ON THE REPORT OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
ORIENTATION COMMITTEE (HSGOC) ON NEPAD
Doc. Assembly/AU/7(XIX)
The Assembly,
WELCOMES the report by the Vice-Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC), H.E. President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal;
ENDORSES the conclusions of the Twenty-Seventh NEPAD HSGOC Meeting;
REAFFIRMS NEPAD as a unique continental programme designed by Africans for Africans and serving as a shared vision to advance regional political and economic integration for the economic emancipation of African peoples;
NOTES the outcomes of the High Level NEPAD Colloquium and Congress of Stakeholders held in March 2012 in Addis Ababa to round up the commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of NEPAD, which re-affirmed the imperative for Africa to accelerate the implementation of NEPAD through effective mobilization and utilization of domestic resources;
FURTHER WELCOMES the continued harmonization efforts between the Commission and the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) towards strengthening coordination and coherence in programme implementation in line with the integration of NEPAD into the structures and processes of the African Union;
RECALLS the Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.413(XVI 11) WHILE NOTING the NPCA organizational structure proposed by the Executive Council through the Permanent Representatives Committee, REITERATES the critical need for a more suitable and practical structure that fully reflects the Continent-wide mandate of the Agency to enable it function effectively and move on the path of results-based delivery for the benefit of Member States;
COMMENDS the conclusions of the Regional Dialogue for Enhanced Coordination for NEPAD Structures and Focal Points at national and regional levels and ENDORSES the Action Plan developed with UNECA to guide the harmonization and coordination of NEPAD programmes and in this regard CALLS FOR regular peer learning exchanges and knowledge sharing on NEPAD implementation at sub-regional level;
ENDORSES the report of the programmatic activities of NPCA for the period: January to December 2012 PARTICULARLY NOTING the progress on implementing key NEPAD regional and continental projects in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities;
RECALLS the Decision (Assembly /AU/Dec.348(XVI) and ADOPTS the final draft Rules of Procedure for NEPAD governance structures as a means to facilitate the functioning of the NEPAD HSGOC as a sub-Committee of the Assembly and the Steering Committee based on the African Union established rules, regulations and practices. ACCORDINGLY REQUESTS the NPCA to certify and publish the adopted Rules in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel of the Commission for circulation to HSGOC Members;
FURTHER RECALLS the Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec.413 (XVIII) and NOTES the ongoing work being done by NPCA and UNECA, along with partner institutions, on the policy study on domestic resource mobilization which will be presented to the HSGOC in January 2013. URGES the final study to come up with concrete and innovative mechanisms to effectively mobilize domestic funding for NEPAD regional projects and PROPOSES the convening of a special HSGOC session in the first half of 2013 to address this matter;
DEPLORES the low level annual contributions from Member States for funding NPCA operations with the implied continued reliance on Development Partners which hampers the Agency’s delivery and infringes on African ownership of the NEPAD agenda. THEREBY DIRECTS the NEPAD Steering Committee to convene an extra-ordinary meeting to deliberate on funding for NPCA and its programmes before the end of 2012;
IN RECALLING the Declaration Assembly/AU/DecL2 (XVIII) on the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) relating to Member States’ commitment to support the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPFF) Special Fund, RECOGNIZES that NEPAD continues to inspire PIDA implementation based on the role assigned to NPCA as the executing agency in the Institutional Architecture for Infrastructure Development in Africa (IAIDA);
WELCOMES WITH APPRECIATION the progress report presented by H.E. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa as Chair of the HSGOC High Level Sub-Committee on the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI) focusing on the North-South Corridor project and the proposal to undertake a road show to garner support for implementing the project and ACKNOWLEDGING the support of the Commission, NPCA, RECs, UNECA, African Development Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) for PICI;
To effectively roll out the North-South Corridor project, NOTES IN PARTICULAR the efforts to provide an efficient operational framework with desired outcomes aimed at removing bottlenecks and developing a project preparation fund and CALLS ON the PICI champion countries in the HSGOC to promptly nominate relevant Ministers to support the work of each Presidential Champion in view of the planned convening of the PICI Ministerial Working Group and Technical Task Teams by the Government of South Africa;
ACKNOWLEDGES Africa’s recent partnership engagements at the G8 and G20 Summits held in Camp David, United States and Los Cabos, Mexico in May and June 2012 respectively and WELCOMES the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa as a notable outcome of the G8 Summit WHILE UNDERSCORING the imperative for the Initiative to be aligned with identified African priorities and systems as reflected in CAADP and REITERATES that G8 countries should fulfil their outstanding commitments to Africa especially those made at Gleneagles and L’Aquila;
CALLS FOR deeper engagement and increased level of interaction between African and G8 leaders at G8/Africa Outreach Sessions, adequate consultations amongst invited African leaders prior to these Sessions and appropriate preparations through the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) to assure its value addition as platform for dialoguing on the Continent’s priorities for the G8 partnership process;
THEREFORE MANDATES the HSGOC Chairperson to lead a multi-pronged lobby campaign to reinvigorate this high level partnership with the G8 with the technical support of the Agency, and REQUESTS NPCA in collaboration with the Commission to engage the Government of United Kingdom as a country to assume G8 Presidency in 2013 to ensure that African priorities and interests are fully reflected in the agenda of the G8 in 2013;
REAFFIRMS the G20 as key platform for Africa to strengthen collaboration towards promoting global economic cooperation and ACKNOWLEDGES the relevant outcomes arising from the 2012 G20 Summit as they relate to Africa, especially the 'AgResults' Initiative to improve food security by encouraging private sector innovation of new agricultural products and systems, encouraging the implementation of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) programme and the Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan to stimulate global employment and growth. APPRECIATES the continuing work of the G20 High Level Panel on Infrastructure and RE-STATES the need for the Panel to consider leveraging public funds in form of surpluses available in emerging economies for higher investment returns in developing Africa’s infrastructure;
RECALLS Decision Assembly/AU/7(XVIII) and NOTES progress by the Commission and NPCA under the auspices of the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDev) in actively advancing Africa’s quest for adequate voice in the Global Partnership (GP) for Effective Development Cooperation and COMMENDS the contributions of the Governments of South Africa, Rwanda and Mali to the Post-Busan Interim Group (PBIG) which made proposals on the governance structures and monitoring framework for Busan commitment;
NOTES the allocation of two (2) seats to Africa in the new Global Partnership namely Co-Chair, representing the AU and other recipients of development cooperation, and member of the Steering Committee in the category of recipient of development cooperation and EXPRESSES DEEP CONCERN that such an arrangement falls short of the basic minimum required in ensuring gains to Africa as a major constituency for development cooperation. THEREFORE CALLS for the allocation of a third seat for the African Union through the Commission and NPCA WHILE REITERATING the Union’s position on the absolute necessity to meaningfully partner through broad-based and adequate representation for impact;
WELCOMES the process of nominating AU Member States to the Global Partnership through established procedures under the aegis of the African Union Regional Ambassadorial Deans and CONSEQUENTLY ENDORSES the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy of the Government of Nigeria and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Economics and Planning of the Government of Chad as the Ministerial Co-Chair and Steering Committee candidates to represent the Union in the appropriate categories for a term up to two (2) years WHILE NOTING that future nominations will be on the basis of rotation and inclusiveness in line with AU practices and procedures;
REQUESTS the Commission and NPCA, in addition to occupying a seat on the Global Partnership Steering Committee, to serve as the secretariat for the AU representatives and coordinating focal point with OECD/UNDP Joint Support Team in fully formalizing African representation and guiding the Continent’s effective participation in the Global Partnership through Ministerial and Technical Reference Groups
RECALLING the Decision (Assembly/AU/Dec.413 (XVII) and WELCOMES the “Roadmap for Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa developed in collaboration between the Commission, NPCA and UNAIDS WHILE REITERATING the critical need to intensify African efforts for more diversified, balanced and sustainable financing for health, with support of traditional and emerging partners. CALLS UPON the Commission, NPCA and UNAIDS to contribute to the successful implementation of the Roadmap;
NOTES WITH APPRECIATION the update on the 2012 Report of Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness (MRDE) by UNECA and the Empower Women in Agriculture (EWAG) Initiative in support of CAADP implementation aimed at building the capacity of women farmers and promoting fair access of women to land inputs and agricultural technology by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), and in this respect URGES the NPCA to continue its institutional collaboration with UNECA and ACBF.