NEPAD-Spanish Fund : Progress

The NEPAD Secretariat would like to announce that the recruitment process for the Fund’s Technical Management Team has been completed and the NEPAD Secretariat is preparing to interview the short-listed applicants. Interviews will be done on 19 March 2008. This is taking us one step closer to finalizing the process. The Secretariat also takes this opportunity to thank all those who applied for the various positions on the team for responding so massively to this initiative.

Applicants awaiting the second call for submission of funding proposals will be informed in good time when to submit or re-submit their applications.

The NEPAD Secretariat thanks everyone for the patience and understanding. The process will be completed soon. Source : NEPAD, march 14, 2008

NEPAD media workshop for African journalists

The NEPAD Kenya Secretariat is holding a NEPAD Eastern Africa media forum in Arusha, Tanzania, from 16-20 March 2008.

It will bring together top journalists and media practitioners from the East Africa region to discuss ways of improving media reporting on African issues.

The first workshop of the media training programme was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 23-25 May 2006 under the auspices of the African Peer Review Mechanism

Follow-up workshops have been in Accra, Ghana (December 2007), Dakar, Senegal (October 2007) and Maputo, Mozambique (January 2008). Source : NEPAD, march 14, 2008

French and English-speaking West Africa looks at business and integration

An international business conference on the development of trade and investment between French-speaking and English-speaking countries in West Africa was held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 3-4 March 2008. Organised by the NEPAD Business Group, Ivory Coast in collaboration with the NEPAD Business Group, Nigeria and the Private Enterprise Foundation, Ghana, it attracted delegates from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Niger, Mali, Senegal and South Africa.

The conference was devoted to three main topics : Inter-connectivity and access to regional markets and industries ; intra-regional specialisation and integration ; the financial sector.

In welcoming the delegates, the chairman of the NEPAD Business Group, Ivory Coast, Guy M’Bengue, said the discussions would help Africa to put itself “on the path of growth and sustainable development in order to put an end to the marginalisation of the continent and promote its full and profitable integration in the world economy”.

He added : “These objectives are in the spirit of NEPAD when it was created in 2001 : to promote an integrated socio-economic framework for the development in Africa”.

The Acting Chief Executive of the NEPAD Secretariat, Ambassador Stephen Olukorede Willougby, in a short speech read by media director Louis Napo Gnagbé, said ; “Developing a dynamic private sector is vital for implementing the ideals and priorities of the NEPAD programmes.

“Developing an energetic private sector, and especially small and medium enterprises, is equally crucial for growth and poverty reduction on our continent and specifically in West Africa”.

He told the delegates : “The importance of your role in this process is unquestionable : you are the driving force for growth and prosperity. Moreover, you are the creators of jobs and tomorrow’s opportunities”.

Dr. Reuel Khoza, chairman of the Nepad Business Foundation in South Africa, told the conference : “We want to take on the continent’s challenge. Africa has lagged behind because of political divisions related to the borders that were drawn by colonialism. This is the continent’s challenge”.

Souleymane Zeaba, representing the Chairman of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said that in order to help reach these goals, the development programmes would be allocated 400 million Euros by the ECOWAS Commission and the European Commission.

Ambassador Essy Amara, a former Chairperson of the African Union Commission said economics, not politics, was the answer to poverty in Africa.

“That is why you must continue the battle for economic integration”, he told delegates. Source : NEPAD, march 14, 2008