Sixty-fourth session
Item 65 (a) of the provisional agenda
New Partnership for Africa's Development:
progress in implementation and international support
Report of the Secretary-General
Summary
In recent years, African countries with the support of the international community have taken several policy actions to implement the sectoral priorities of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and enhance prospects for meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The current report indicates that, despite the global financial and economic crisis and its negative impact, some progress has been achieved in the implementation of NEPAD. The main challenge now for African countries is to ensure that the financial crisis, combined with the latent food and energy crisis, does not reverse the progress made and reduce the risk of increasing poverty and hardship for the most vulnerable groups. In the context of crisis, international cooperation for development is needed. The report calls on international development partners, including the United Nations, to take concerted and urgent action to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the crisis and help African countries recover ground in their progress towards the implementation of NEPAD and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Specifically, donors should deliver on aid commitments as the crisis has reinforced the need to speed up the implementation of key socio-economic development programmes. To allow Africa to maintain its growth momentum and facilitate the implementation of NEPAD projects, development partners should take steps to successfully conclude the Doha Round of trade negotiations. These issues are discussed in section II of the report with a focus on the progress made by African countries in the implementation of NEPAD sectoral priorities. Section III of the report illustrates the response by the international community in support of Africa's development, section IV highlights the support provided by the United Nations system and section V contains conclusions and recommendations.
