Zambia ready for Nepad peer review, says Mwanawasa

LIVINGSTONE – Zambia has notified the African peer review secretariat of its decision to accede to the African peer review mechanism and is ready to be reviewed.

This was announced by President Levy Mwanawasa in his statement – read on his behalf by foreign minister K Mwansa – officially opening the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) national sensitisation workshop held in Livingstone earlier this month. The workshop’s objective was to increase awareness of Nepad, its operations and programmes, and the potential benefits, so as to enhance stakeholder participation.Mwanawasa told the workshop that awareness was critical to Nepad’s success and was something that should be approached with “passion”.The workshop was organised by Zambia’s ministry of foreign affairs and jointly funded by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).About 60 participants from various sectors of Zambian society attended the workshop, including ministers, MPs and senior officials, and members of academia, non-governmental organisations, the private sector, the UN and intergovernmental institutions.The Nepad secretariat representatives were led by Wiseman Nkuhlu, the chairman of the Nepad steering committee and head of the Nepad secretariat in South Africa.Aeneas C Chuma, the UN resident co-ordinator and UNDP representative, said the peer review mechanism was a bold and novel initiative in Nepad’s vision of Africa, determining its political and development agenda.He also revealed that the UNDP had established an implementation trust fund to finance the activities of the African peer review panel and secretariat.Mwanawasa described Nepad as a “forward-looking and ambitious plan” developed by African leaders themselves to address the key challenges that Africa faced, such as poverty and marginalisation.Ambassador Simataa Akapelwa, permanent secretary in Zambia’s foreign ministry, said that whereas the old partnership was based on the concept of a donor-recipient relationship, the new one was based on the pursuit of African common interest and mutual obligations, with programmes and projects set by Africans.Nkuhlu said that among the challenges facing Zambia at this stage was the promotion of the internalisation of Nepad principles, values and priorities.This included the integration of Nepad framework, projects and programmes in the national development plan and the identification of Nepad infrastructure projects.- Source: Nepad secretariatThe workshop’s objective was to increase awareness of Nepad, its operations and programmes, and the potential benefits, so as to enhance stakeholder participation.Mwanawasa told the workshop that awareness was critical to Nepad’s success and was something that should be approached with “passion”.The workshop was organised by Zambia’s ministry of foreign affairs and jointly funded by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).About 60 participants from various sectors of Zambian society attended the workshop, including ministers, MPs and senior officials, and members of academia, non-governmental organisations, the private sector, the UN and intergovernmental institutions.The Nepad secretariat representatives were led by Wiseman Nkuhlu, the chairman of the Nepad steering committee and head of the Nepad secretariat in South Africa.Aeneas C Chuma, the UN resident co-ordinator and UNDP representative, said the peer review mechanism was a bold and novel initiative in Nepad’s vision of Africa, determining its political and development agenda.He also revealed that the UNDP had established an implementation trust fund to finance the activities of the African peer review panel and secretariat.Mwanawasa described Nepad as a “forward-looking and ambitious plan” developed by African leaders themselves to address the key challenges that Africa faced, such as poverty and marginalisation.Ambassador Simataa Akapelwa, permanent secretary in Zambia’s foreign ministry, said that whereas the old partnership was based on the concept of a donor-recipient relationship, the new one was based on the pursuit of African common interest and mutual obligations, with programmes and projects set by Africans.Nkuhlu said that among the challenges facing Zambia at this stage was the promotion of the internalisation of Nepad principles, values and priorities.This included the integration of Nepad framework, projects and programmes in the national development plan and the identification of Nepad infrastructure projects.- Source: Nepad secretariat