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Africa's development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward (A/64/208)

Attachments

Sixty-fourth session
Item 65 of the provisional agenda
New Partnership for Africa's Development: progress
in implementation and international support

Report of the Secretary-General

Summary

The present report is prepared in compliance with the requirements contained in General Assembly resolution 63/1, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit a comprehensive report on "Africa's development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward" with a view to the formulation, by the time of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly, of a mechanism to review the full and timely implementation of all commitments related to Africa's development.

The report assesses the impact on development of three crises currently engulfing Africa: the financial and economic, the food, and the climate change and energy crises. It also examines the major commitments made by African States and institutions, development partners and the United Nations towards the development of the continent, and the state of their implementation. The focus is on commitments in the areas of sustainable economic growth, human development, governance and security, official development assistance, debt relief, trade liberalization and aid for trade. The report reviews the existing monitoring mechanisms and stresses that monitoring is critical if their international goals are to be attained.

It concludes that the crises have occurred at a time when African countries are achieving remarkable economic growth. Hence, in 2008, Africa witnessed a set back in important key areas, such as economic growth, agricultural development and poverty eradication, as well as in many other human development indicators. To reverse this trend, the present report contains some action-oriented recommendations.