While aiming at its unity, Africa has attempted a number of initiatives to search for a collective development strategy. Such a search included the Lagos Plan of Action, the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the Final Act of Lagos (FAL)

After nearly a decade and a half post independence period which resulted in relatively  good economic performance, the late 1970s and 1980s witnessed a drastic slow down.. Actually, the latter were characterized as the lost decade for Africa, with an average annual decline of per capita income of about 1.7 per cent.

It was in the above context that, the “Monrovia Symposium on the future development prospects of Africa towards the year 2000”was convened in February 1979 in Monrovia, Liberia. The Symposium resulted in a “Monrovia Declaration of Commitment of Heads of  State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity on Guidelines and Measures  for National and Collective Self-Reliance in Social and Economic Development for the Establishment of a New International Order.”

This Declaration was subsequently adopted by the OAU Summit meeting in July 1979 in Monrovia as “The Monrovia Strategy”. The OAU Summit then met in April 1980 at a Special Session in Lagos, Nigeria, to prepare and adopt the “Lagos Plan of Action for the economic development of Africa; 1980-2000” (LPA).

The LPA was meant to implement the Monrovia Strategy. The LPA is a comprehensive Plan covering most development sectors (Food and Agriculture, Industry, Natural Resources, Human Resources development and utilisation, Gender, Science and Technology, Transport and Communications, Trade and Finance, Energy etc.). The LPA also contains a number of measures to be taken at national, and continental levels in all these sectors.’

At the same extraordinary session, the Final Act of Lagos was adopted as an annex of LPA, specifically calling for the establishment of “an African Economic Community, so as to ensure the economic, social and cultural integration of (the) continent”. The AEC as well as the RECs have been discussed in the preceding chapter.

The African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes (AAFSAP)

As the economic crisis which started in the late 70s continued unabated, the implementation of the LPA was severely constrained. This situation could be attributed to two main factors. First, by the early 1980s, as many as 40 African countries were engaged in the IMF and World Bank supported Stabilization and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), respectively. As clearly demonstrated in the ECA publication entitled ‘Alternative Framework for Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio economic Recovery and Transformation.”

Although, in some countries, SAPs brought about a relative macro-economic stability, they had the adverse effects of increasing unemployment by substantially reducing the number of civil servants, and by downsizing the employees of privatized public enterprises. No doubt, SAPs have contributed in setting he stage for widespread poverty.

Instead of focusing attention on SAPs sacro-saint policy instruments (cuts in government expenditures, devaluation of currencies, high interest rates, privatization and external trade liberalization,), AAFSAP provided a framework for: access of the poor to basic factors of production thus widening the production base, transforming and diversifying the economy, creating employment opportunities, and Improving the way national wealth is shared throughout the population.

As for the LPA, the increasing conditionality of most bilateral and multilateral partners, particularly the major International Financial Institutions (IFIs), AAFSAP has not been implemented. The latter continue to argue that market mechanisms, through export led growth strategy, will lead to optimum allocation of resources, thus overlooking the fact that the comparative advantage of African economies at their present stage is mostly in primary commodities and light industries of low value added.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

At the Lusaka Summit in 2001, African Heads of State and Government  adopted Declaration AHG/Decl.1 (XXXVII) merging, under one umbrella, two documents, namely, the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme (MAP) and the OMEGA Plan, initiated by President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa, and President Abdoulaye Wade of the Republic of Senegal, respectively. The resulting document was the New African Initiative.

As stated in the Lusaka Declaration, the New African Initiative “is a pledge by African leaders, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, taken collectively on a path of sustainable growth and development, and at the same time to participate effectively in world political, economic, social and cultural matters.

The New African Initiative, was later renamed New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), with a view to emphasizing the concept of partnership within and among countries, particularly between public and private sectors, as well as with the international community. NEPAD is structured around three main areas, namely:

In launching the African Union and NEPAD, African Heads of State and Government sought to ensure that the latter would be an essential implementation tool of the former.In addition to its governance component which was entrusted to an African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), NEPAD’s initial focus was on infrastructure and energy; Information and Communications Technologies, Human Resources Development (Education and Health,  Environment  and Food and Agriculture

In conformity with its twin objectives of Unity and collective development strategy, the two main features of NEPAD are the promotion of continental and inter-regional programmes and projects, and mobilization of resources primarily from domestic sources including the African private sector.

These two main features were not followed and NEPAD has become mainly national programmes or set of initiatives to be implemented at national level. Moreover, NEPAD is relying mostly on external donors particularly from G8 countries, and multilateral financial institutions. Attempts are being made to refocus on integration programmes and projects and to devise an alternative self financing mechanism based essentially on domestic resources.

As for the APRM, it has so far been effectively implemented in seven countries, as of July 2008. Independent reports were prepared for these countries based on Country Self Assessment Reports (CSAR). The CSAR are the result of autonomous nation- wide consultations among all segments of the population on Democracy and Political Governance (DPG), Economic Governance and Management (EGM), Corporate Governance (CG) and Socio Economic Development (SED).

The countries peer reviewed as of July 2008 include Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Algeria, South Africa, Benin and Uganda. CSAR have already been prepared for Nigeria and Burkina Faso. As of July 2008, 29 countries had voluntarily adhered to APRM.

Overall, a revitalized NEPAD programme and a sustained implementation of APRM with wider country coverage could contribute to bringing a more concrete collective development strategy for Africa. Specifically, NEPAD should be the arm of the African Union in fast tracking the integration process. As pointed out in the audit report, in addition to institutional revamping at national, regional and continental levels to be more integration oriented, there is need to inject additional accelerators to be mainly entrusted to NEPAD, with the support of Africa’s development partners.

These accelerators include: (i), ensuring, in a near feature, the free movement of African peoples across the continent; (ii) focusing in building continental and interregional transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures: (iii) promoting multinational African private investment companies; and (iv) speeding up monetary cooperation towards the creation of an African Monetary Fund, an African Central Bank and an African Investment Bank.

By Makha Dado Sarr.

Makha Dado Sarr is Former Special Coordinator for Africa and Least Developed Countries, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York. he is also Former Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Member of the High Level Panel on the Audit of the African Union.