Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
10 December 2001
Chairperson, Deputy Secretary-General, High Commissioners, Ambassadors, Members of delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the first meeting on the Development and Co-operation Calabashes of the CSSDCA. I am also very happy to welcome you to South Africa and I trust that you will enjoy your stay with us.
As it is customary, I would like to invite you to consider the lovely surroundings, the excellent weather we are having, and to encourage you to consider South Africa as a superb holiday destination. Should you, based on first impressions, already have decided to extend your stay with us, I am sure that we will be able to assist you in changing your flight arrangements. However, before then we have an important task before us.
As you may know, we are at the start of a new process which will benefit our goal of making this truly the African Millennium of peace, stability, democracy, development and a united and prosperous continent which can contribute to a world that is just and equitable.
The 36th Ordinary Session of the OAU/AEC Assembly of Heads of State and Government, which took place in Lomé, Togo from 10 to 12 July 2000, adopted the Report of the First Ministerial Meeting of the Conference on Stability, Security, Development and Co-operation in Africa (CSSDCA), held in Abuja from 8 to 9 May 2000.
In order to implement the CSSDCA within the framework of the OAU/AEC and to ensure the sustainability of the process, it was agreed that a Standing CSSDCA Conference would be established, to convene every two years during the Summit. The Meetings of Plenipotentiaries and Senior Officials will undertake review meetings in between Sessions of the Standing Conference. The Secretary General was requested to initiate internal administrative arrangements for designating, within the OAU/AEC Secretariat, a unit to co-ordinate CSSDCA activities.
The Council of Ministers at their meeting in Tripoli on 27 February 2001 reiterated the importance of the CSSDCA.
At their Extraordinary Summit in Sirte on 1 and 2 March 2001, the OAU Heads of State and Government were briefed on progress made on the implementation of the CSSDCA. It was confirmed by Summit that the negotiations at experts level on all issues to be incorporated in all the calabashes would be followed by a review at Ministerial meeting that must take place before the AU Summit in South Africa. The Summit in South Africa will be the first Summit to review progress on the implementation of the CSSDCA agenda.
When the OAU Summit in Lomé in 2000 adopted the Solemn Declaration on the CSSDCA, its Declaration acknowledged the CSSDCA process as creating a synergy between the various activities undertaken by the OAU/AEC, which therefore should help to consolidate the work of the OAU/AEC in the areas of peace, security, stability, development and co-operation. Little did we realise at that stage that the CSSDCA was yet to become an important tool for the realisation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which has become apparent as we have concentrated our efforts in the development of NEPAD.
Our task throughout these proceedings will be to bear in mind how we can harness these three initiatives in such a way that they will mutually enforce and strengthen each other, without detracting from the full functions of each. In this manner the NEPAD will primarily be the guide for policy and programme formulation for the African Union, while the CSSDCA will provide benchmarks against which we can measure successes.
By interpretation the Solemn Declaration identifies the CSSDCA as a continental initiative which would ensure common values and underwrite community behaviour. To this end, within each of the calabashes, the general and specific principles identified in the Solemn Declaration need to be:
The CSSDCA was the first initiative which unequivocally recognised the linkages between security, stability, co-operation, economic and social development, and that each one is a pre-condition for the other, thereby emphasising that all of these need to be developed and supported in tandem. The truth of this approach is self-evident, and is therefore also reflected in the NEPAD, and will be reflected in the future structures of the African Union.
I would also like to make mention of the role that the CSSDCA can play in involving the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and associating civil society organisations in the framework of action. These issues are also a challenge for us as we are developing the new structures for the African Union. The Regional Economic Communities are not only the building blocks of the African Union, they are also the mechanisms for implementing programmes and projects that we identify in initiatives such as the one we are about to embark upon. It is of crucial importance to our future as a continent to demonstrate political will and commitment to the success of each of our regional communities. This would also entail closer co-operation between the communities, and a clearly defined role and reporting structure for the communities in all of the initiatives we are involved with.
To narrow our focus to the specific tasks of the Development and Co-operation Calabashes, we are convinced that we should reinvigorate our commitment to the goals of development and give effect to a concrete programme of action for the implementation of NEPAD, and that in developing the Performance Indicators in the two Calabashes, we should reflect the full spectrum of issues contained under development.
Poverty eradication is an indispensable requirement for sustainable development and we have to reiterate our commitment to address all three components of sustainable development - namely economic growth and development, social development and even environmental protection, as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars - in a balanced way, in conformity with the fundamental principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Poverty alleviation is ultimately the promotion of human development, by means which would address aspects of good governance, investment in social services, equitable access to education, health care, safe water, sanitation and adequate shelter, as well as equitable economic growth that creates job opportunities, raises income and livelihood opportunities of poor people, and generates resources for effective governance and adequate investment in social services.
These matters are not new to us, and they are indeed the goals which we have set out for ourselves when we signed the Solemn Declaration. Our specific task is to ensure that we reflect these issues when we design the Performance Indicators against which we will measure our success. In doing so, we also have to bear in mind the priority sectors and conditions for development as set out by NEPAD. As a reminder, the Conditions for Development are:
The Priority Sectors are:
I need not remind you that all of these issues are also addressed in the Solemn Declaration, which, once more, demonstrate that Africa is of one mind as far as our priorities are concerned.
Our greatest advantage is that we do not lack opportunities where we can advance our goals of unity and development. In fact we create our own opportunities, such as this particular meeting. Our challenge is to use this opportunity in a meaningful manner so that the benefits we derive from it will serve our goals for many years to come.
I thank you.