Obasanjo: Nepad has challenges

2004-07-07 14:04

Addis Ababa - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday touched on numerous constraints hampering the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), now in its third year.

"One of our biggest challenges is to ensure maximum ownership of Nepad by all peoples and countries of the African continent," he said, adding that "crippling capacity gaps" at all levels of planning and implementation needed attention.

Obasanjo was presenting a Nepad progress report to heads of state attending the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. He is also the chairperson of the Nepad heads of state and government implementation committee.

Commenting on Nepad's development partners, Obasanjo said they needed to move beyond rhetoric and start acting on their promises.

"The list of unfulfilled commitments by our partners is growing long," he said.

Obasanjo said the economic outlook for Africa seemed to be improving with the International Monetary Fund world economic outlook projecting a stronger economic growth rate for Africa.

He also said Nepad priority programmes in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure, the environment, science and technology, and tourism, needed to be prepared and carried out.

Obasanjo said the launch of the African peer review mechanism last year was a clear signal that leaders on the continent were serious about good governance as a "precondition for sustainable development".

Noting that the challenges Nepad faced were numerous, he nonetheless cautioned against an overhasty approach to ridding the continent of the bane of underdevelopment.

"Turning around the continent will not happen overnight," he said.

Obasanjo said as Africa moved forward, each brick needed to placed in the right place if "we are to build a strong foundation for the future".

- SAPA