Decision on the Report of the Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – Doc. Assembly/AU/4(XX)

DECISION ON THE REPORT OF THE HEADS OF STATE AND
GOVERNMENT ORIENTATION COMMITTEE ON THE NEW
PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT

Doc. Assembly/AU/4(XX)

The Assembly,

1. WELCOMES the Report of the Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC), H.E. Mr. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal following his election at the Twentieth-Eight Session to a two-year term based on the adopted Rules of Procedure of NEPAD governance structures;

2. ENDORSES the conclusions of the Twenty-Eighth Session of the NEPAD HSGOC;

3. NOTES the optimism and opportunities of a rising Continent to better shape Africa’s future taking into account the theme of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance for the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the OAU and the second decade of NEPAD as the flagship programme of the African Union;

4. ENDORSES the progress and recommendations to take forward NEPAD programmes elaborated in the Activity Report of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) for the period: July to December 2012 presented by the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki;

5. COMMENDS the intensive efforts and focus of NPCA towards achieving better results in its programmatic delivery and REINFORCES the need for direct impact of NEPAD programmes and projects on the livelihoods of African people;

6. NOTES the commemoration of a decade of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as an opportunity to consolidate achievements and draw lessons to deliver more substantial results and THEREBY COMMENDS the “Sustaining CAADP Momentum” exercise conducted by the AUC and NPCA aimed at strengthening policy, institutions, local leadership and knowledge support with greater emphasis on investments to transform African agriculture, food and nutrition security;

7. WELCOMES the joint initiative of the Government of Egypt and NPCA to develop an integrated programme to address the recurrent food insecurity situation exacerbated by climate change and conflict in the Sahel region by linking food security and global security WHILE NOTING the proposed design of a blueprint for rural transformation under the NEPAD Rural Futures Programme;

8. FURTHER NOTES progress made in the Initiative to Empower Women in Agriculture (EWA) with priory areas of land reform, leadership, access to inputs and knowledge and PLEDGES support for enhancing the role of women in agriculture;

9. REFERS to Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.413(XVI11) based on the conclusions of 26^th HSGOC Session on Domestic Resource Mobilization for NEPAD programmes and projects and WELCOMES the progress so far recorded in the joint conduct of the in-depth study by NPCA and LINECA. REQUESTS NPCA, UNECA and partners to finalize the study report before May 2013 for consideration by the 29^th HSGOC;

10. RENEWS commitment to the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI) and NOTES WITH SATISFACTION the progress achieved to date in advancing PICI projects particularly outcomes of the January 2013 Technical Focal Points Workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria in the context of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). AGREES to consider the inclusion of energy and sanitation projects, not currently covered under PICI and COMMENDS the leadership of H.E. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa as Chair of HSGOC PICI High-Level Sub-Committee and the Presidential Champions;

11. EMPHASIZES the critical need for PICI projects to promote inter­connectivity among African countries and regions to adequately address infrastructure deficits and boost intra-African trade and AFFIRMS the advantage of PICI in providing the strategic impetus for clear and effective communication and coordination. NOTES that the PICI Ministerial Forum will be convened in May 2013, prior to the 29^th HSGOC;

12. RECALLS the Declaration Assembly/AU/Decl.2(XVIII) and RE-STATES the need for active collaboration between the Commission, NPCA, and African Development Bank (AfDB) in revamping the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Fund (IPPF) through domestic funding by Member States and concerted efforts to increase private sector involvement in infrastructure development in conjunction with the World Economic Forum (WEF);

13. In this regard, WELCOMES the Africa Public Private Partnership Network (AP3N) as a continental platform for peer-learning to strengthen the role of PPPs in Africa’s infrastructure development through the harmonization of PPP projects;

14. NOTES WITH APPRECIATION the briefings by H.E. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa on hosting the 6^th Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) Summit in Durban on 27 March 2013, for the first time on African soil and H.E. Boni Yayi, President of the Republic of Benin on Africa’s engagements with the G8 and G20 in 2012 under the auspices of Chairpersons of the Union and HSGOC;

15. ACCORDINGLY WELCOMES the Summit theme: ‘BRICS and Africa - Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialization’ and the BRICS- African Leaders

Dialogue Forum to focus on infrastructure cooperation as well as the expected participation of AU leadership, PICI Champions, RECs, regional and global agencies;

16. REITERATES the urgent call for the G8 to fulfil its commitments to Africa and REQUESTS for stronger G20 support to Africa in ensuring resilience against the impact of the global economic crisis. URGES that Africa’s development priorities be placed on the 2013 agenda of the G8 and G20 Summits in the United Kingdom and Russia, respectively. CALLS FOR adequate and effective African representation in global development processes especially the G20 and the Global Partnership (GP) for Effective Development Cooperation;

17. RECALLING Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.442(XIX) on G8 New Alliance for Agriculture and Food Security, CALLS FOR stronger African participation in the Leadership Council of the G8 New Alliance WHILE REQUESTING the Commission and NPCA to monitor the implementation of the commitments under the New Alliance and the G8 L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI);

18. AFFIRMS the essence of NEPAD in the priority setting for the post-2015 development agenda and REQUESTS NPCA to continue to work with the Commission and partner institutions to shape the African input;

19. RE-EMPHASIZES mutual accountability as a core partnership element and NOTES the on-going work on the AU Accountability report of Africa-G8 commitments with focus on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by NPCA, AUC and UNAIDS and the evaluation of the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) after 10 years of existence by NPCA and OECD Secretariat through the NEPAD Steering Committee;

20. Based on the Rules of Procedure of the NEPAD governance structures, ENDORSES the election of H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal as HSGOC Chairperson, H.E. Mohamed Morsi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the re-election of H.E. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algeria as HSGOC Vice Chairpersons each for two-years. FURTHER ENDORSES the membership of the five (5) initiating countries and the outcomes of election of the 15 rotating HSGOC members by the 28^th HSGOC Session as follows:

Note: * newly-elected members

21. RECALLS the appointment by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, in consultation with the Chairperson of the HSGOC, and the Chairperson of the African Union, of Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Niger as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPCA in January 2009 and HAVING ACKNOWLEDGED his exceptional leadership, high competency and improved performance of the Agency, ENDORSES the continuation of the services of Dr. Mayaki as NPCA Chief Executive Officer for a new term of four (4) years. CONGRATULATES the CEO on his re-appointment and wishes him success;

22. WELCOMES the set-up of the Meles Zenawi Centre (MZC) on Sustainable Development within NPCA structure to promote knowledge generation on African Ownership and Strategy for Transformation as a tribute to the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia for the outstanding leadership he provided to the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) for the period 2007-2012.