Africa’s Development Problematique (The case of NEPAD)

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

In July 2001, during the Organisation of African Union summit in Lusaka, Zambia, the New African Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was born. Five years later and given the importance of this new economic paradigm to Africans, it is necessary to revisit and restate some of the predicaments that NEPAD inadvertently put on its way.

First, the ideological problem.  NEPAD was not necessary. The Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) that was adopted in the extraordinary OAU – summit in 1980 was a promissory note for which Africa’s economic development was to be improved between 1980 and 2000.

Only eleven years later (1991) Heads of State met in Abuja, Nigeria to revise the LPA both in content and strategy and came up with the treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC). AEC’S objective was “to promote economic, social and cultural development and the integration of African economies in order to increase economic self-reliance and promote an endogenous and self-sustainable development.” This objective carries all the ingredients of an economy that is African-inspired, African-driven and African-reliant. This statement conjures the image of “ownership and responsibility” that is embedded in NEPAD.

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