In anticipation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, African leaders developed and launched the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The Organization of African Unity (OAU) formally adopted NEPAD in July 2001. NEPAD seeks to provide a broad policy framework for addressing the priority challenges in Africa, including sustainable development, eradication of poverty, empowerment of women, and integration into the global economy.
The Action Plan of the Environment Initiative provides an environmental policy framework for addressing environmental issues in Africa, including implementation of MEAs. The Action Plan was developed in a consultative and participatory process with African experts by NEPAD together with the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), UNEP, and GEF. The African Union adopted the Action Plan in July 2003.
The Action Plan links two defining features of Africa — poverty and environment — recognising the common and shared sustainable development problems and concerns in the different States of the continent. This regional action plan, covering the first decade of the 21st century, promotes Africa’s sustainable development and therefore takes a long-term approach. It is emphasises processes, projects, and related activities that enlarge Africa’s economic prospects through sustainable environmental management.
The Action Plan integrates economic growth, income distribution, poverty eradication, social equity, and better governance. It covers eight sectors, many of which are already the subject of various MEAs: combating land degradation; drought and desertification; wetlands; invasive species; marine and coastal resources; cross-border conservation of natural resources; climate change; and cross-cutting issues. Indeed, one of the specific objectives of the Action Plan is to support the implementation by African States of their commitments under the global and regional environmental agreements to which they are party.
From 20- 25 September 2004 UNEP organized a NEPAD Orientation and Training Session in Nairobi, Kenya, which brought together more than 60 participants representing African Governments, the African regional economic communities, the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, civil society and resource persons. The five-day training session covered a wide range of topics including an overview of the Action Plan for the Environment Initiative of NEPAD; a UNEP/GEF medium-size project on capacity building to develop sub-regional environmental action plans; UNEP’s initiatives on environmental management; environment programmes of the regional economic communities; MEAs; GEF as a financial mechanism; case studies on synergies in implementing MEAs; and the AMCEN Programme of Work for 2004/06.
For more information, see http://www.environment-directory.org/
nepad/home/index.asp or http://www.nepad.org or contact Estherine.Lisinge-Fotabong@unep.org For more information on AMCEN, see the case study following Guideline 11(b)