Final Review and Appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s and Support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 41aFinal review and appraisal of the implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, published in 2002.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

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What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Africa Development Assistance Partnership Sustainable Development

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2003.

2003A/58/254The New Partnership for Africa's Development 1st consolidated report on progress in implementation and international support : report of the Secretary-General

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What does this mandate say?

38 operative paragraphs

I

Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on the final review and appraisal of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, in particular the lessons learned about the New Agenda, as well as recommendations and proposals on the modalities for the future engagement of the United Nations with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development;1

Takes note of the report on the independent evaluation on the New Agenda;

Expresses its disappointment at the limited progress made in realizing the objectives of the New Agenda;

Decides to bring the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s to a close, and endorses the recommendation of the Secretary-General that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, as decided by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity at its thirty-seventh ordinary session, held in Lusaka from 9 to 11 July 2001, should be the framework within which the international community, including the United Nations system, should concentrate its efforts for Africa’s development;

II.Support for the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development

Welcomes the New Partnership for Africa’s Development as a programme of the African Union that embodies the vision and commitment of all African Governments and peoples for peace and development;

Reaffirms its commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, adopted at the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly, held on 16 September 2002, to consider how to support the New Partnership, and takes note of the deliberations that took place on that occasion;

Urges the international community and the United Nations system to organize support for African countries in accordance with the principles, objectives and priorities of the New Partnership in the new spirit of partnership;

Recognizes the importance and strongly encourages the involvement of the private sector and civil society in the implementation of the New Partnership;

III.Action by African countries and organizations

Welcomes the commitment of African countries to integrate the priorities of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development into their national policies and development planning frameworks, to maintain full ownership and leadership in developing and utilizing such policies and frameworks, and to mobilize domestic resources in support of the New Partnership;

Also welcomes the commitment of African countries to peace, security, democracy, good governance, human rights and sound economic management, as well as their commitment to take concrete measures to strengthen mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution as embodied in the New Partnership, as an essential basis for sustainable development in Africa, and in this context welcomes the ongoing efforts of African countries to develop further the African peer review mechanism which is an important and innovative feature of the New Partnership;

Recognizes the importance of establishing national focal points for the New Partnership within the governmental structures of African countries, with responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the New Partnership at the national level, serving as a repository of information, and fostering a coordinated response to the New Partnership by individual countries;

Emphasizes the need to build and strengthen human and institutional capacities at the national, subregional and regional levels in order effectively to implement the New Partnership in all its aspects, and the need to allocate resources to this end;

Encourages the further integration of the priorities and objectives of the New Partnership into the programmes of the regional economic communities of Africa and other subregional and regional structures and organizations, as well as programmes in favour of the African least developed countries;

Also encourages efforts to raise awareness of the New Partnership and to involve all African stakeholders, namely Governments, the private sector and civil society, including women’s organizations as well as community-based organizations, in the implementation of the New Partnership;

Welcomes the commitment of African countries to promote and enhance the role of African women in all aspects of the implementation of the New Partnership and in achieving the objectives thereof;

IV.Action by the international community

Urges the developed countries that have not yet done so to make concrete efforts towards achieving the target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product as official development assistance to developing countries, as internationally agreed, to implement effectively their commitment on official development assistance to the least developed countries, as contained in paragraph 83 of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001–2010, adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels on 20 May 2001,4 and to commit a significant share of such assistance to African countries; encourages developing countries to build on the progress achieved in ensuring that official development assistance is used effectively in helping to achieve development goals and targets; and underlines the importance of undertaking an examination of the means and time frames for achieving the goals and targets;

Stresses the need to find a durable solution to the problem of external indebtedness of the heavily indebted poor countries in Africa, including through debt cancellation and other arrangements, and in this regard also stresses the need to explore innovative mechanisms to address comprehensively the debt problem of low and middle-income African countries, bearing in mind that external debt relief can release resources that could be utilized in the successful implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, taking into account initiatives that have been taken to reduce outstanding indebtedness and the need to pursue vigorously and expeditiously debt relief measures, including within the context of the Paris Club and London Club and other relevant forums;

Recognizes the essential role of trade as an engine for economic development in Africa, and in this regard calls for improved market access for African exports within the framework of the Doha Ministerial Declaration,5 without prejudging the outcome of the negotiations of the World Trade Organization, and also within the framework of preferential agreements, and in this regard calls upon developed countries to assist African countries in improving their capacity, including by the removal of supply-side constraints and the promotion of diversification, which is critical to enabling them to take full advantage of such opportunities, taking into account the need to provide market access for developing countries;

Calls upon developed countries that have not yet done so to work towards the objective of duty-free and quota-free access for all exports of the least developed countries, as envisaged in the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001–2010;

Also calls upon developed countries to encourage and facilitate investment by their private sectors in Africa, to help African countries to attract investments and promote policies conducive to attracting investment, to encourage and facilitate the transfer of the technology needed to African countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed, and to assist in building human and institutional capacities for the implementation of the New Partnership consistent with its priorities and objectives;

Further calls upon developed countries to channel financial, technical and other types of resources towards the priorities of the New Partnership, in particular infrastructural development, health services, education, water and agriculture, in accordance with the priorities determined by each African country, and to explore ways of generating new public and private innovative sources of finance for development purposes, provided that those sources do not unduly burden developing countries, particularly in Africa, and in this regard notes the proposal for the use of special drawing rights allocations for development purposes;

Recognizes the importance of South-South cooperation and the contribution that it can make to the implementation of the New Partnership, encourages in this regard other partners to support this type of cooperation, including, as appropriate, through triangular cooperation, and considers that South-South cooperation should be viewed not as a substitute for, but rather as a complement to, the support provided by developed countries;

Calls upon the private sector and civil society outside Africa to participate in and contribute to the implementation of the New Partnership in all its aspects, including through effective partnerships between the public and private sectors;

Calls upon the United Nations system, within respective mandates, to align its activities in Africa with the priorities of the New Partnership, in accordance with the priorities determined by each African country, and urges the scaling up of resources for this purpose;

Also calls upon the United Nations system to enhance its advocacy role and public information activities in support of Africa’s development;

Urges the United Nations system, in coordinating its activities at the national, regional and global levels, to foster a coherent response, including through close collaboration with bilateral donors in the implementation of the New Partnership in response to the needs of individual countries within the larger framework of the New Partnership;

Welcomes the actions already under way at the regional level to organize the activities of the United Nations system around thematic clusters covering the priority areas of the New Partnership, and in this regard urges the strengthening of this process as a means of enhancing the coordinated response of the United Nations system in support of the New Partnership;

Calls upon the United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies to strengthen further their existing coordination and programming mechanisms, in particular the Common Country Assessment and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, as a means of enhancing support to African countries in the implementation of the New Partnership and in support of national poverty reduction strategies and in particular, where appropriate, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers;

Urges the United Nations system to work closely with the African Union and other regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations to ensure the implementation of the programmes and priorities of the New Partnership;

Encourages the ongoing efforts of the United Nations system to enhance further the simplification and harmonization of its planning, programming, disbursement and reporting procedures at the national, subregional and regional levels so as to ease the burden on the limited capacities of African countries;

Requests the United Nations system to assist in the implementation of the New Partnership through the provision of continuing support for the efforts of African countries in human and institutional capacity-building at the national, subregional and regional levels and the mobilization of financial resources;

Requests the multilateral financial institutions to ensure that their support for Africa is compatible with the New Partnership;

Calls upon the United Nations system to strengthen its cooperation with the African Union and its Peace and Security Council and other African mechanisms in their efforts to resolve and prevent conflicts at the subregional and continental levels in order to ensure a solid basis for the implementation of the New Partnership, and in this regard welcomes the establishment of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Security Council on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa and of an ad hoc advisory group on African countries emerging from conflict, within the framework of the Economic and Social Council;

Notes the decision of the Secretary-General to give to his Special Adviser on Africa the responsibility of coordinating and guiding the preparation of reports of the United Nations Secretariat related to Africa, and also notes the decision to transfer the resources of the Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries to the Adviser;

Underscores the need for a structure in the Secretariat in New York, at an appropriate level, which will review and report on support provided by the United Nations system and the international community for the New Partnership and on the coordinated implementation of outcomes of summit meetings and conferences as they relate to Africa, as well as coordinate global advocacy in support of the New Partnership, and in this context requests the Secretary-General to make proposals on the organization of such a structure within the framework of his proposals for the programme budget for the biennium 2004–2005;

Invites the Economic and Social Council, pursuant to its role in respect of system-wide coordination, to consider how to support the objectives of the present resolution;

Decides to include a single, comprehensive item on the development of Africa, entitled “New Partnership for Africa’s Development: progress in implementation and international support”, in the annual agenda of the General Assembly, beginning at its fifty-eighth session, and encourages the efforts being made towards clustering the items related to Africa’s development;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit the first consolidated report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session on the basis of input from Governments, organizations of the United Nations system and the other stakeholders in the New Partnership, such as the private sector and civil society.

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