NEPAD takes stock, readies for domestic resource mobilization to implement program

Abstract

“If there were no NEPAD, there would be need to establish one” said a participant at today’s colloquium and congress organized by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in collaboration with partners including the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as part of activities assessing the achievements and challenges of the pan-African initiative over the past 10 years. Organized at the new African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa under the theme: “Africa’s Decade of Change: Accelerating NEPAD implementation through Domestic Financing”, the events pulled together a diverse panel made up of political leaders, scholars and development practitioners, according to the Information and Communication Service of ECA. With one of NEPAD’s founding father (former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria) present, the current Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia); and the outspoken former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings ready for frank talk, NEPAD successfully set the stage for the kind of soul-searching questions that progressive organizations engage in.