Africa: NEPAD: between hope and despair

Is the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) a panacea for Africa’s development problems or just another fad destined for the continent’s development cemetery? The popular and/or political critique is that NEPAD is a creation of some few African leaders, notably Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Obdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, with backing from the West. That critique is justified but there is the risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water, says this commentary from Namibia's New Era newspaper.