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afrol News, 15 April - African leaders from more than 30 countries began a three-day conference in Dakar, Senegal, today with representatives of corporations from across the globe to present a unified vision for Africa's development and opportunities for doing business there. The event is organized by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). NEPAD is an initiative by African leaders aimed at ending poverty, putting the continent on a path to growth and development and promoting active participation in the world economy. The main heads behind this African concept of development were the Senegalese President and host to the summit, Abdoulaye Wade, the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and South African President Thabo Mbeki. - Businesses participating range from Cisco Systems to Air France. Also among the 800 conference participants are representatives from international organisations, development agencies, civil society and governments, reported the UN development agency UNDP today. The main objective of this conference, according to its organisers, is to "provide the private sector with an opportunity to dialogue with African heads of state and government" to enable investments in a new and transparent strategic partnership. The conference builds on last month's International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, and will discuss financing of NEPAD. The leading industrial nations that make up the Group of Eight have endorsed NEPAD, and it will be a focus of their June summit in Kanakis, Canada. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, host of the conference, said it should not be seen as a project fair, but an opportunity to foster dialogue with the private sector in Africa and the international arena. "I don't know of a country that has developed itself through aid only," he said. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the co-sponsors, however pulled out at the last minute because of pressing engagements at home. Obasanjo, head of NEPAD's working committee, was due to have opened the summit and Mbeki was to have addressed a plenary session on "good governance - a condition for investment." The conference's first two days will include presentations on several NEPAD priority areas, including agriculture, energy, environment, infrastructure, and information and communications technology (ICT). A special summit of African heads of state on the final day will focus on the private sector initiative and other African issues. Zéphirin Diabré, UNDP Associate Administrator, said the meeting is "a natural follow up" to the Monterrey Consensus, which calls for "more and better aid and also clearly spells out the key role that the private sector must play in financing development." NEPAD demonstrates how developing countries are "taking control of their own destinies," he said, "charting their own path to achieving the development goals established by world leaders in the Millennium Declaration and ensuring that they are better able to meet the needs of their people." The NEPAD initiative has been developed with the major objective of jumpstarting the continent's development in the 21st Century. It was widely greeted also by Western leaders as a powerful attempt by African leaders to take charge of the continent's destiny, also taking responsibility for good governance, democracy, human rights and fighting corruption. The ambiguous position of African leaders towards the rigged Zimbabwean elections in March however was a major blow to NEPAD's credibility. The US has held its support to NEPAD on ice since that, and other Western states have become notably cooler. These damages were clearly addressed at the last NEPAD summit in Abuja (Nigeria). Some of the issues raised by Nigerian President Obasanjo at the summit included the "need to address the issue of freedom, or lack of it, and on what basis we may judge the leadership in African countries." Senegal's Foreign Minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio urged the West to not hold NEPAD "hostage Over Zimbabwe." This however seems exactly what is happening at the moment.
Sources: Based on UNDP, media reports and afrol
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