20 June 2002
South Africa is honoured to be hosting the Inauguration Summit of the AU in South Africa in July 2002. As Chair, South Africa will seek to play a constructive role to ensure that the core structures of the AU commence functioning smoothly, namely the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Executive Council, the African Parliament, the Permanent Representative Committee of Ambassadors and the Commission, and other structures of the AU which will be established later. The first year of the AU is crucial for us to set the pace and direction of the organisation for subsequent years.
I would like to assure you all, especially the Afro-pessimists, that the AU will be fundamentally different from its predecessor, the OAU. It is not merely the "O" that falls away as certain detractors would scorn. The transition to the AU reflects the continuation of Africa's own unwavering determination to deal with the legacy of colonialism and underdevelopment. The future focus will also be on meeting the basic needs of people with regard to socio-economic development, achieving peace, security and stability, and the protection of human rights, democracy, good governance and the rule of law. There will also be important limitations on the principle of sovereignty.
Discussions and consultations are also taking place on the establishment of a Council of the Wise, comprising highly respected African personalities, to complement the efforts of the envisaged AU Peace and Security Council.
Chairperson, NEPAD is seeking fundamental transformation regarding political and economic governance. Given the realities of our continent, we have no illusion about the difficulties and indeed opposition from vested interests that we will face in implementing the objectives of NEPAD. NEPAD is about genuine partnership and not paternalism. We also start from an understanding that NEPAD is not an event but a process.
Impressive progress has already been made and a detailed implementable NEPAD Programme of Action will be presented to the G8 Summit in Kananaskis in 20 June 200202 and to the Inaugural AU Summit in South Africa in July 2002. The NEPAD Steering Committee, together with the G8 Personal Representatives Committee have been meeting at regular intervals and are focusing on the following themes, namely: Governance, Peace and Security, Education/Knowledge and Health and Economic Growth and Private Investment.
The Draft Report on Good Governance and Democracy spells out in detail commitments and obligations such as: strengthening of the democratic process, promotion of good governance, protection of human rights, press freedom and enhancing institutional capacity. New initiatives worth underscoring are:
establishing an effective African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
The APRM is designed, owned and managed by Africans so as to demonstrate that African leaders are fully aware of their responsibilities and obligations to their peoples and are genuinely prepared to engage and relate to the international community on the basis of mutual respect.
The purpose of the APRM would be to:
Each NEPAD-participating country is expected to define a clear time-bound programme of action for meeting the said commitments, obligations and actions.
Conversely, committed states should be assisted to overcome deficiencies and capacity constraints in meeting their commitments and obligations. The monitoring and review process could be utilised to identify these deficiencies and limitations and to assist in securing the necessary resources to overcome them. Incentives (political, social and economic) must be created for emerging democracies that are committed to maintaining and entrenching their achievements. It is necessary to support good leadership on the continent. Good governance, political and economic, demands appropriate conditions, especially eradication of poverty and underdevelopment. This requires, inter-alia, support in the form of increased market access, debt relief, increased flow of investment and ODA, removal of agricultural subsisides in OECD countries ($360 billion a year), technological transfer and bridging the IT gap.
It is proposed that members of the APRM team, as well as their terms of reference, be recommended by the Council of Ministers for the approval by the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee. Such an approved team would be comprised of an eminent African personality and nominees of the envisaged African Commission for Human Rights, Peace and Security Council and the Pan-African Parliament.
The Abuja meeting the NEPAD Implementation Committee also approved eight Draft Codes and Standards for Economic and Corporate Governance for Africa were approved by the Implementation Committee. These are: