82. Two presentations were made under this agenda item:
(i) "ECA Major Initiatives and Programme Developments," (ECA/SRDC/SA/ICE/2001/8a) which focused on forging partnerships for Africa's development, field projects on post-conflict reconstruction and development; and (ii) Activities of the ECA/ESPD. The discussions of the two documents were done at the same time.

83. Forging partnerships for Africa's development was best explained in a book entitled Partnership Africa: A Synopsis of the ECA Framework for Cooperation. The book provided a snapshot of nineteen projects in six thematic clusters which cover: consensus building and partnership; promoting good governance and civil society participation; enhancing international competitiveness and regional integration; promoting South-south Cooperation and capital markets development; integrating gender concerns in development; addressing sustainability in population, environment, agriculture and development, as well as promoting information services for Africa's development.

84. The Second African Development Forum dealt with the theme "AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge", and took place from 3 to 7 December, 2000 in Addis Ababa. The Forum ended with the adoption of the African Consensus and Plan of Action which calls for leadership at all levels---in the family, in the community, the workplace, schools, civil society, government and at the international level to overcome the continent-wide threat of HIV/AIDS.

85. The planned ADF 2001 theme was accelerating regional integration in Africa. In this regard, the ECA was preparing The Annual Report on Integration in Africa (ARIA) which would be the main document for the 2001 Forum. The Report would be published annually and the Commission expected the effective involvement of regional and sub-regional economic communities.

86. Other Commission-wide activities that occurred in 2000 included the Knowledge Networks: Database on African Experts and the African Knowledge Network Forum (AKNF); the "Big Table" of OECD-African Countries; Partnership with the Department of International Development (DFID-UK); and the New Global Compact with Africa.

87. The Committee was briefed on major events planned for 2001 and member States and interested organizations and individuals were invited to consult ECA's websites on the Internet and to obtain some basic documents from the SRDC-SA.

88. On the ECA sub-programme on economic and social policy, the representative of the Economic and Social Policy Division (ESPD) introduced the areas of focus including the economic growth and the transformation needed to reduce poverty. Two subsidiary issues dealt with promoting income distribution as well as trade and investment, which constitute a vicious circle of growth and economic development. He indicated that the Division worked in three teams: Growth and Resource Mobilization; Trade and Investment Promotion and Debt Management; and Poverty Analysis and Social Policy.

89. He then presented the ECA Global Compact with Africa, an ECA initiative being supervised by ESPD. The Global Compact has the following goals: Creating capable states to reverse the declining economic performance registered since African countries accessed to independence (i.e. since the 1960's); Achieving sustainable growth with a view to reducing poverty and ensuring structural transformation; and Promoting regional integration.

90. He said that a key idea featuring in the Compact related to the need for transformation partnership with Africa on issues such as new aid modalities, debt relief, market access, as well as reforming international trade and financial architecture. With regards to the implementation of the Compact, he stressed the need to start with a clear understanding as to why previous initiatives had failed. In so doing, Africa should bear in mind the importance of ownership and participation in policy formulation and implementation, the division of labour which should establish clear responsibilities for each category of stakeholder (accountability), the financing of development tied to the issues of resource mobilization from both internal and external origins, and the centrality of strategies as well as the continent's ability to persevere in continued efforts.

91. He stressed that the overarching challenge under the Global Compact with Africa was poverty reduction. He then proposed that the way forward should be directed towards establishing stable and sound macroeconomic environment and policies; involving more private sector involvement in development; reaching greater financial depth by elevating the level of "monetization" of the economy (GDP); as well as promoting public provision of essential social services such as health and education. Political commitment as well as stability are also key elements for Africa to achieve the ambitious goals of halving poverty by reaching 7.1% growth rate in sub-Saharan Africa; targeting an investment rate as high as 40%; and substantially reducing external debt from its current level.

92. In the discussion that followed, the meeting raised such fundamental questions and issues as implementation of the Compact, development paradigms, and collaboration and partnership. Delegates observed the apparent difficulties African economies had in reconcilling the contradictions between the broad-based pro-poor growth strategies and the Washington Consensus.

93. Moreover, in the presence of weak economic structures, especially non-performing and weak private sector, how the States and public sector could lead structural transformation, specifically assist in the diversification of narrow products and export based economies. In the area of forging effective partnership between ECA and member States, it was noted that strong collaboration was indispensable for the effective implementation of the Compact.

94. The participants also emphasised that strengthening, and creating in some cases, of a strong private sector was very much needed on the continent as sustainable development would not take place if private sector operators and organizations did not play a central role by contributing to agricultural and industrial development and accessing external markets. The participants also noted that developed countries were often reluctant to open markets to products from African countries.

95. Finally, the meeting recommended to ECA to pursue its efforts and adequately inform the member States of services, products and documentation the Commission produces. It was, for instance, suggested that ICE meetings be used to disseminate ECA's major publications, to including the annual Economic Report on Africa (ERA).

96. In response, the Secretariat informed the meeting that recently there had been a consensus on broadening the development agenda, which is beyond the narrow-focussed Washington Consensus. In this line, the main issue was the 'quality' rather than the 'quantity' of public intervention for pro-poor growth strategies given the trend of globalization and liberalization. The meeting was also informed that in order to strengthen the private sector, the partnership between public and private sectors was essential and the measures based on incentives provision were critical. For the issue of forging partnership, it was noted that one of the key focus of the Compact was strengthening the partnership among key development stakeholders for its effective implementation.