Président de la Commission de l’Union Africaine (depuis le 1er. février 2008)
Président du Ghana,
Président de l’Union Africaine (depuis janvier 2007)
In announcing the election of Prof. Wiseman Nkuhlu as president of the International Organisation of Employers in last week’s Dialogue, we referred to him as the chairman of the NEPAD Steering Committee. He is not the chairman. He represents South Africa on the Steering Committee. Our apologies to the chairman and to the professor. Source : NEPAD, june 6, 2008
The South African Government through the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is hosting the 12th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Johannesburg from 6-12 June 2008. The main objective of the session is to provide a platform for the Environment Ministers to review the progress being made with the NEPAD Environment Action Plan.
Key items on the agenda are the emerging environmental challenges, particularly issues related to climate change.
A civil society workshop is being held at the start of the week-long discussions to act as an advocacy platform to influence the Environmental Ministers and to enable civil society organisations and other stakeholders to understand and engage in the climate change process in the context of NEPAD and the African Union (AU).
The intention is to build on current civil society engagement with the AU process and to ensure the broader voice of communities in Africa reach the AU. Source : NEPAD, june 6, 2008
Thirty African countries are now preparing operations with finance from the Strategic Investment Programme (SIP) to scale-up their sustainable land management practices under the NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and Environment Action Plan (EAP) in support of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Council in June 2007 approved an innovative $150 million grant under the four-year Strategic Investment Programme to support the scaling up of sustainable land management (SLM) practices in Africa.
The Strategic Investment Programme was developed through an extensive and inclusive consultation process led by NEPAD and is a key part of the work programme of the TerrAfrica partnership.
The 30 African countries now preparing their discrete operations are working in collaboration with supporting TerrAfrica agencies — AfDB, FAO, IFAD, UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank. Other TerrAfrica partners include UNCCD’s Secretariat and Global Mechanism, bilateral donors, civil society, and African governments.
Partners have committed to a 1 to 4 leveraging ratio for use of SIP resources. The SIP’s portfolio has exceeded this minimum ratio, already bringing in commitments of nearly a billion US dollars in leveraged resources.
Implementation of the SIP is guided by key partnership principles consistent with the underlying NEPAD principles. All SIP operations have been initiated via the existing regular country dialogues between countries and their multilateral partners that implement GEF-supported operations. The preparation of these operations is following a country-led process aligned with CAADP and EAP priorities.
Under the SIP, there are now 41 operations covering 30 countries. In many cases, the GEF-SIP support enables countries to develop programme-based approaches to SLM, often by applying a tool developed by TerrAfrica called the ”Country SLM Investment Framework.”
This tool provides the overall framework for designing and implementing investment programmes to scale up SLM over the long term.
NEPAD, in close liaison with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the concerned TerrAfrica partners or development agencies, is backstopping and facilitating expert input in country processes.
The SIP also supports a number of regional or multi-country operations including the institutional capacity-building operation under the coordination of the NEPAD Secretariat.
This operation, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, will reinforce implementation of the SIP portfolio by strengthening institutions, knowledge management, and monitoring and evaluation.
In addition to AU/NEPAD and the Regional Economic Communities, targeted local institutions will likely include the CAADP Pillar 1 institutions to be organised by and through the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the University of Zambia in Lusaka. Source : NEPAD, june 6, 2008
The dramatic and sudden rise in world food prices is hurting the African people. While we talk, many African families are facing the daily reality of struggling to find the means to provide just one meal a day. In the short-term, the current high food prices pose a very real challenge to the stability and security of countries and the nutritional security of their citizens. We are now well aware of the potential consequences that await us if we fail to act, and are beginning to come to terms with the underlying causes of the current crisis. The question, however, that brings us here is what are we going to do about it ?
The good news is that African governments and institutions have not waited to act. Through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework the African Union and NEPAD have already convened a coalition of African governments and partners from the development community.
On 19 May, representatives from 16 countries, including those hardest hit by the rising food prices, came together with key development partners including the World Bank, World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, the African Development Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and bilateral partners including USAID, DFID, GTZ, NORAD and JICA.
Participants met to review and prepare options for both immediate responses to the food price increase as well as longer-term solutions for increasing agricultural production and achieving food security through the acceleration of the CAADP process at the country level.
Even as we speak, country stakeholders in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Senegal, Mali, Malawi, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mauritania, Kenya, Cameroon, Niger and Rwanda are in the process of finalising with development partners both the necessary urgent short-term interventions expected to begin implementation within the next 2-6 weeks as well as the medium-term roadmap for accelerating the CAADP roundtable process and achieving the necessary transformation of the agricultural sector required to meet poverty reduction targets and provide sustained economic growth.
This rapid response is possible because in CAADP there already exists an African-defined framework for restoring agriculture growth and food security in Africa that has been endorsed by African Heads of State and Government and is in the process of implementation.
The real challenge is to ensure that the necessary support and resources from the development community are made available and can quickly flow to ensure as rapid implementation of CAADP as possible.
As already stated a number of development partners are leading the way in providing such support. However there is a great urgency to increase the scale and scope of support being provided. And such support can only be provided by directly engaging in and reinforcing the country-led and defined CAADP processes that are currently underway throughout Africa.
Hence I call on all those gathered here, to look to the ground, to look to what is already happening, and combine your energy with ours in ensuring the successful implementation of the CAADP process and ensuring we achieve both a short and long-term solution to the rising food price crisis. Source : NEPAD, june 6, 2008