Decision on the Report of Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) on NEPAD – Doc. Assembly/AU/9(XXIII)

DECISION ON THE REPORT OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
ORIENTATION COMMITTEE (HSGOC) ON NEPAD

Doc. Assembly/AU/9(XXIII)

The Assembly,

1. NOTES WITH APPRECIATION the report by the Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC), H.E. Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal;

2. ENDORSES the conclusions of the Thirty-First Session of the HSGOC;

3. HIGHLIGHTS the contributions of NEPAD to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in its decade of existence, NOTING that CAADP had matured into an agenda for socio-economic transformation and recognized global brand impacting on the continent’s development through the strong expression of reclaimed ownership of agricultural policy by Member States and African citizens;

4. ENDORSES the CAADP Results Framework as a tool to enhance evidence­based planning, monitoring and learning by Member States in the pursuit of agricultural-led economic growth and inclusive development. REQUESTS the NPCA to support the capacity strengthening in Member States to internalize and use the CAADP Results Framework, and develop necessary programmes on afforestation, irrigation and post-harvest loss;

5. NOTES that in the face of globalization and its impact on food and nutrition security and livelihoods, Africa should embrace food sovereignty and regional trade preference strategies to attain food self-sufficiency and enhanced regional cooperation. IN THIS REGARD, URGES NPCA, AUC and RECs to work with Member States to develop the requisite national and regional strategies, policies and programmes;

6. APPRECIATES the programmatic work of NPCA in mainstreaming climate change into CAADP national investment plans and REQUESTS the Agency to increase technical and coordination support to Member States to build resilience and adaptive capacity in responding to the impacts of climate change and variability, as well as design climate smart agricultural investment programmes and support the sharing of best practices and lessons on climate smart agriculture;

7. FURTHER ENDORSES the NEPAD Programme on Agriculture Climate Change with its components on gender empowerment, support to small-holder farmers and the establishment of an African Climate Smart Agriculture Coordination Platform through which NPCA will collaborate with Partners including RECs and Non-Governmental Organisations targeting 25 million farm households by 2025;

8. WELCOMES the innovative partnership between NPCA and major International NGOs to strengthen grassroot adaptive capacity to climate change and boost agricultural productivity. SPECIFICALLY REQUESTS the NPCA in collaboration with FAO to provide technical assistance to Member States in the implementation of the NEPAD Climate Smart Agriculture programme and the African Development Bank and development partners to provide support to Member States for investments in climate smart agriculture;

9. COMMENDS the on-going implementation actions by the NPCA in promoting NEPAD programmes on food security and nutrition, gender empowerment, sustainable land and water management WHILE EMPHASIZING the need to ensure that Africa’s growth trajectory provides opportunities for the youth and foster rural transformation. DIRECTS NPCA to upscale the implementation of the Rural Futures Programme with a stronger emphasis on youth employment. FURTHER AGREES that the AUC and NPCA should develop policies on labour-market relationship favourable to foster youth employment and invest in practical actions targeting skills development and making agriculture more attractive to the African youth;

10. WARMLY WELCOMES the announcement by the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of a grant of USD 4 million to support the NPCA in facilitating the implementation of the Agency’s job creation programme for the youth in the agriculture sector;

11. ACKNOWLEDGING the multi-sectorial nature of Agriculture and its central role in driving rural transformation, REQUESTS NPCA through its Rural Futures Programme to provide technical support to strengthen alignment between agricultural and national development policies and rural development programmes;

12. RECOMMITS to the CAADP Maputo Decision and IN RECOGNIZING the continued need to support Member States to effectively monitor the 10% target in agriculture budget allocation, REQUESTS the NPCA in collaboration with FAO to undertake a study and develop guidelines to help Member States improve the quality of resource allocation to agriculture to determine the real value and relativity to the GDP size;

13. RECALLS the Decisions Assembly/AU/Dec.488(XXI) and Assembly/AU/Dec.508(XXII) and NOTES WITH SATISTFACTION the outcomes of the Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure held in Dakar, Senegal on 15 June 2014 under the distinguished leadership of H.E. Macky SALL, President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of HSGOC, which promoted the strengthening of innovative synergies between the public and private sectors to mobilize pan-African and global financial investments for infrastructure development in the continent;

14. ACCORDINGLY ENDORSES the Dakar Agenda for Action adopted by the Summit to move forward the financing for Africa’s infrastructure and VALIDATES the policy

conclusions and recommendations of the NEPAD-ECA Study on Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) for implementing NEPAD programmes and projects which served as the basis for the Summit;

15. WELCOMES IN PARTICULAR the Africa50 initiated by the AfDB as an investment platform designed significantly to narrow the infrastructure financing gap; the setup of the Continental Business Network (CBN) on Infrastructure Financing coordinated by NPCA and the Summit organizing partners; improvement measures to promote policy certainty, legal and fiscal stability towards enabling environment; the continued political determination of African Leaders to support the implementation of high impact national and cross-border projects and infrastructure project preparation and financing for the projects showcased at the Summit as a first step towards implementing the PI DA priority action plan by 2020;

16. REAFFIRMS the strong linkage between the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI) and the priority projects presented at the Dakar Financing Summit as mutually reinforcing and impetus to further accelerate PIDA implementation. URGES Member States, development finance institutions and partners to increase funding support for infrastructure project preparation, especially the NEPAD Infrastructure Preparation Facility (IPPF) hosted by the African Development Bank;

17. CONSEQUENTLY REQUESTS the NPCA to design the appropriate modalities to implement the Dakar Agenda for Action and thereafter report regularly to the HSGOC on progress being made. FURTHER URGES the NPCA in conjunction with the RECs, AfDB, UNECA, UNDP, World Bank and the NEPAD Business Groups/Foundation to strengthen engagement with the private sector on taking forward the Dakar Agenda based on the conclusion to setup the Continental Business Network. UNDERSCORES the intrinsic linkages between skills development and modern infrastructure driven by science, technology and innovation, NOTING the need for the HSGOC to prioritize policy actions in this regard towards PIDA and PICI implementation;

18. HIGHLY COMMENDS the HSGOC Chairperson and the Government of Senegal for successfully hosting the Financing Summit and EXTENDS DEEP APPRECIATION for the high level participation of H.E Yayi Boni, President of the Republic of Benin; H.E Goodluck Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; H.E Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, President of the Republic of Mali and H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the AU Commission, with the support of NPCA Chief Executive Officer, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, President of African Development Bank; UNECA Executive Secretary and the World Bank Vice President for Africa;

19. Based on the assessment of reform of the Africa Partnership Forum (APF), RECALLS the Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.508(XXII) on the need to establish a new umbrella partnership formation and APPRECIATES the efforts by NPCA and NEPAD Steering Committee to this effect;

20. APPROVES the establishment of the proposed Africa Global Partnership Platform as a new partnership mechanism premised on Africa’s regional integration agenda and a coalition-building forum comprising AU Member States represented in the NEPAD HSGOC, NPCA, AU Commission, RECs, lead regional institutions and Africa’s major trade, investment and aid partners countries from the G8, G20 and OECD;

21. IN RE-EMPHASIZING the rationale for the partnership vehicle to reflect the changing global political and economic architecture, especially the pivotal role of the G20, WELCOMES the platform as an Africa-owned and led ‘umbrella formation’ bringing together the continent’s existing international partners to concretely support Africa’s transformation under the auspices of the AU, thereby fostering greater coherence in the continent’s partnerships. RE­AFFIRMS that the new platform will not replace the existing bilateral partnership arrangements, but serve to complement them;

22. ENDORSES the terms of reference prepared by the NPCA and submitted through the NEPAD Steering Committee, highlighting the proposed rationale, objectives, format and membership of the platform, WHILE NOTING that the new platform will engage on issues of economic cooperation of strategic nature to Africa, globalization and the defined priorities embodied in the African Union, NEPAD and Agenda 2063;

23. HEREBY MANDATES the HSGOC Chairperson with the support of the NPCA Chief Executive Officer and NEPAD Steering Committee to formally approach the identified and potential partner governments and institutions to determine their interest and readiness to join and nominate appropriate senior level officials to the Platform. ALSO REQUESTS NPCA Chief Executive Officer to engage Germany as the current G7 Presidency on possibly revamping the G7-Africa partnership outreach during its term and CALLS UPON the Governments of Senegal, South Africa and Mauritania to approach Australia as the current G20 Presidency on the proposed G20-Africa partnership track possibly through the G20 Development Working Group;

24. NOTES AND WELCOMES the launch of the African Innovation Outlook-2 Report by the NPCA which captures the status of science, technology and innovation in the African Union Member Stated and requested Member States, the AU Commission, and NPCA along with the private sector and development partners to increase the roll-out of the surveys to all African countries.