Malawi: CIVIL SOCIETY COMMENTS ON NEPAD

MALAWI CIVIL SOCIETY COMMENTS ON NEPAD

27 February 2002

We, members from the civil society in Malawi, call on the NEPAD secretariat to halt the implementation of the NEPAD initiative until there is wider public endorsement and a sharper focus on fighting poverty in poorer African countries. We have met several times both at national and international levels to discuss the initiative and have found that NEPAD offers little prospects of benefit for the poorest in Africa.

We fully welcome the idea of having an African Regional Initiative, as this would bring new vision for Africa. Among others, the initiative would allow some expensive projects in the region to be pursued jointly and so be cost effective. It would also promote trade investment and assist exchange rate stability.

However on the NEPAD specifically, we have serious reservations and we would like to register the same to the secretariat. Our concerns are:
Content
Having thoroughly gone through the document, we note that:
- NEPAD proposes to continue using the old neo-liberal models of development that have failed Africa for long and as such this initiative does not offer any hope for turn around of poverty in Africa, let alone Malawi.
- The document is very general and takes all African countries at the same level.
- NEPAD is gender neutral and mentions women and children in passing implying that it has limited plans for women and children.
- Sectoral specific is the concern that the initiative does not recognise and put clear plans for HIV/AIDS that has greatly affected (and continues to affect) Africa.
- The document was also drawn without assessment of failures / successes of the older regional blocks such as SADC, COMESAS, ECOWAS.
- The antithesis of the document is that developing economies like Malawi and most African countries need a different approach than those already chartered by the western world, a fact not recognized by NEPAD.
- Almost all conditions given in the NEPAD are governance-related. Much as we agree, the following conditions, (which are not in the document) ought to be recognized for any sustainable initiative if it is to deliver: Political will; Economic stability; Protected environment and Enabling international environment
- There is a lot of duplication in the document. The strategies highlighted there in are already taken by sub-regional organisations such as SADC, COMESA AND ECOWAS.
- Given the crop of corrupt leaders we have in Africa, the document does not espouse on how Africa would ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the mobilization of resources.
- Membership of the implementation committee is not representative of the poor African countries The process.
Reflecting on the process followed in the formulation of NEPAD, we as stakeholders are not convinced that the initiators have done all they could to harness real African input in the process. Unlike the participation precedent that was set in the national processes such as PRSP formulation, we feel that the NEPAD initiative was rushed and not participatory.
Although the international financing institutions praise NEPAD, most citizens in Africa are yet to be given more information on the initiative that they are said to own. It feels as if the drivers of the NEPAD seem interested in getting the support of the G8 and the International Financing Institutions (IFIs) than getting the African ownership of the initiative. We want to believe that the member governments do not encourage this approach -
an initiative of such importance as NEPAD ought to be drawn through a transparent, wider and participatory process.

Our request to the NEPAD Secretariat We therefore call on the Committee to halt the implementation of NEPAD before involving the civil society in critically analyzing the initiative so that priorities of NEPAD augur well with needs and priorities of member nations. As of now the priorities in the NEPAD are not in line with most of them.
Our main area of concern is that NEPAD shall likely create a situation in which poor countries like Malawi shall continue to suffer the economic exploitation of the larger economies, in the name of regional development.
We all know that even in Africa, there are exploitative and relatively capitalistic nations.
We also call on the officials to involve all stakeholders including civil society in the formulation debate before generalizing Africa's commitments and needs.

Yours sincerely,
COLLINS MAGALASI
National Coordinator,
Malawi Economic Justice Network