"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
PRESENTS
PRESS RELEASE
THE NEPAD BUSINESS GROUP (ABR)
09 December 2003
Sharon Stocks
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Africa@Work
Tel: +27 11 234 9338 - Fax: +27 11 234 9337
In what has been described as a “breakthrough”, agreement was reached yesterday on the need for a new mechanism to allow for ongoing contact between the private sector and NEPAD structures.
The private sector mechanism, the exact shape of which is still to be determined, is intended to improve the co-ordination between business, the African Union and the NEPAD Secretariat. It is hoped that this will enable the private sector to play a stronger role in the implementation of the NEPAD programme.
The decision was taken at a meeting on the sidelines of the NEPAD Business Group conference held in Johannesburg yesterday.
The high-level meeting included Alpha Konare, head of the African Union, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Special Adviser on Africa to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chairman of the NEPAD Business Group, of which South Africa’s NEPAD Business Group is a member. This is the first time these three key African players have been able to sit together to discuss issues related to NEPAD.
Members of the NEPAD Secretariat, as well as representatives of the South African and Kenyan NEPAD Business Groups and the international members of the NEPAD Business Group, represented by the Commonwealth Business Council and French investors in Africa, also attended the working lunch yesterday.
The African Union and the NEPAD Secretariat are to appoint private sector representatives to facilitate ongoing contact between African business and the two organisations. Representatives of international business will also sit on the panel.
This new group could play a key role in the UN’s initiative to improve the co-ordination between the donor assistance and NEPAD.
At the meeting, Mr Konare strongly endorsed the private sector and highlighted the importance of business getting behind Africa and the NEPAD programme.
Mr Tukur, who is driving the process on behalf of business, said he hoped this could be done as soon as possible. “We need to decide, along with the NEPAD Secretariat, how to proceed. This process must move quickly. It is very important to encourage greater co-operation between business, the NEPAD Secretariat and the African Union.”
The African Business Round Table, of which Mr Tukur is the Executive President, has seconded Mr Yusuf Turundu to act as the private sector liaison person at the NEPAD Secretariat.
Mr Tukur said the strong support given by Mr Konare, who was elected head of the African Union earlier this year, to encouraging the private sector to play a greater role in continental development was crucial in giving the process momentum.
Mr Konare told the conference yesterday: “We believe strongly in the African private sector. Without its help, we cannot achieve great things.” Aid and handouts had not helped the development of Africa, he said, and the continent now had to build and mobilise its own resources.
“The private sector must help us to become fully functional and efficient. We must find a way to ensure permanent contact between governments and business. It is essential that we all think up concrete strategies to this end. We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where African business is weakened at the time we most need it to be strong.”
“If we don’t work with the private sector and reinforce it, nothing will change in Africa,” he said.
Professor Gambari said the UN Secretary General was keen to involved the private sector in all activities of the UN. The appointment of a special adviser on Africa in his office was an indication of his seriousness on the issue.
Yesterday’s conference, “Mobilising the Private Sector in Support of NEPAD” provided the opportunity for the role between business and NEPAD to be put on the table.
Speakers at the event emphasised the need for international business to do more to develop capacity on the continent and to work more with the African private sector. The presence in Africa of many world-class companies belied the generally held impression that there was little private sector capacity on the continent.
Governments were called on to remove the obstacles to doing business faced by the private sector.
Reuel Khoza, head of the South African NEPAD Business Group, said there was a plan in place to establish a Section 21 company, funded by the private sector, to run the Group in South Africa. All work for the Group has, to date, been done on a voluntary basis.
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