1. Concern about the worsening social and economic conditions and their destabilising effects on many societies, and recognition of the significance of the social dimension in sustainable development prompted the United Nations General Assembly to adopt Resolution 47/92 of 16 December 1992, which called for convening a World Summit for Social Development at the level of Heads of State or Government to tackle the critical problems of poverty, unemployment and social disintegration. Consequently, the World Summit for Social Development was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in March 1995 and adopted the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action for Social Development.

2. The Declaration is a reaffirmation by Heads of State and Government to end global poverty; achieve the goal of full employment and foster stable and just societies. The Programme of Action for Social Development, on the other hand, outlines policies, actions and measures to implement the principles and fulfil the commitments articulated in the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development. The actions recommended relate to creating, within a framework of sustained growth and sustainable development, an environment at the national and international levels, which will be supportive and conducive to social development, including eradicating poverty, enhancing productive employment and reducing unemployment, and fostering social integration.

3. Central to the concerns, commitments and recommendations of the Social Summit was the eradication of poverty. It will generally be agreed that the relevant agenda on this score would be for the reduction of poverty in the short to medium runs and that the eradication of poverty will continue to be an ultimate long-run objective of the development process. In this context, it is now generally agreed that poverty reduction requires sustained economic growth as a necessary condition. Distribution of wealth and income is also central to effecting poverty reduction.

4. It is perhaps encouraging to note that the continent was able to show signs of recovery in terms of growth performance over the period since the Social Summit. In 1997, countries regularly monitored by ECA show all but three registering positive economic growth. This is to be contrasted with the 6 countries that had negative growth rates in 1995, the year of the Summit and the 12 countries that did not grow at all in 1994. Also in 1997, 31 out of the countries registered rates of growth in excess of their population growth rate resulting in an increased per capita income. Thirteen of these 31 countries achieved GDP growth of at least 5 per cent, the threshold required for sustained poverty reduction in Africa. Africa’s GDP growth rate for 1997 was 2.9 per cent compared to 2.7 per cent in 1995; subregional performance was strongest in Central Africa (3.8 per cent), West Africa (3.7 per cent) and East Africa (3.5 per cent) while Southern and North Africa performed less well with 2.4 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.

5. Recognising that the issue of poverty is related to the lack of productive employment, the Social Summit placed great emphasis on, and countries committed themselves to, implementation of policies and strategies for the expansion of productive employment and the reduction of unemployment. One of the profound challenges facing African countries today is creating sufficient employment opportunities for the increasing labour force and reducing unemployment and underemployment. Although employment data tend to be incomplete and unreliable in most African countries, available evidence suggests that productive employment has not kept pace with increased labour supply. The average labour force is growing at about 3 per cent per annum and there are declining and stagnating levels of wage employment, decreasing real wages and deteriorating working and living conditions. Recent data for most countries estimated urban unemployment rates to be in the 20-30 per cent range, underemployment rates in the 25-40 per cent range, youth unemployment rates in 25-40 per cent range, and women’s unemployment range at twice the national average.

6. The reality depicted above should not detract countries from fulfilling the commitments made at the Social Summit. Experience has shown that economic growth alone is not a sufficient condition for increased employment. Growth should be directed to those economic sectors with a high employment content, but which are also able to compete in an increasingly competitive international environment.

7. In addition to the above two major concerns of poverty and employment, there has been renewed attention and emphasis to democratisation and good governance as important instruments to sustain development in Africa. African countries more than ever before, are in the midst of several transitions - from autocracy to open democracy, from single party to multiparty systems and in some cases like , from conflict and civil strife to peace and reconstruction. ECA and UNDP, as part of the United Nations Special Initiative on Africa, are working together with governments in pursuit of good governance systems. Activities in good governance address issues of political, economic and administrative transformation. A major activity in the last two years has been the annual African Governance Forum organised jointly by ECA and UNDP. The first Forum held in July 1997 in Addis Ababa mainly reviewed good governance initiatives in the areas of democratic transformation, socio-economic aspects of governance, and promoting empowerment and participation. The second Forum held in Ghana in June 1998 discussed governance culture within the administrative set-up. It focused on the issues of transparency, accountability and ethics. Further, a conference on "Governance in Africa: Consolidating the Institutional Foundations ", was convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 2-6 March 1998. The conference was jointly organised by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and ECA with assistance of the Government of Japan and was chaired by former President Julius K. Nyerere. In a number of ways good governance does contribute to poverty reduction, socio-economic transformation, peace, security and stability - important attributes of social development.

8. Another major issue for the North African Subregion is the question of youth and their involvement in nation building. While unemployment still hampers this involvement, youth leadership has to be trained to face the challenges, and national policies need to reflect these concerns.

9. It is now three years since the Summit was held, enough time at least, to allow for a review of the progress made by member States of the Economic Commission for Africa. The major objective of the Follow-up Conference is to take stock of the progress made since Copenhagen in the most important areas of social development identified by the Social Summit. It is noted that due to the short time that has elapsed since March 1995 a full-fledged evaluation of policy measures undertaken by various member States will not be feasible. As such, therefore, the major objective of the subregional Conferences is understood as one of monitoring rather than one of evaluation.

10. Specific objectives of the Follow-up Conferences include:

11. Though there exist more than 127 indicators identified by the UN System to gauge socio-economic progress, for the purposes of the Subregional Conference it is proposed to use quantitative and dated objectives of the UN Summits held during the 1990s. We note in this respect that the date for poverty eradication objective was left for the country to determine. All other objectives have dates starting with the year 2000.

12. The key goals, and hence the monitoring indicators, are:

• By 2000, reduce under-five child mortality by one-third from the 1990 level, or to 70 per 1,000 live births, whichever is less, and by 2015, by another half..

• By 2000, reduce maternal mortality by half from the 1990 level, and by 2015 by another half.

• By 2000, reduce severe and moderate malnutrition among children under five by half from the 1990 level, addressing especially the gender gap in nutrition.

• By 2000, achieve universal access to basic education and the completion of primary education by at least 80% of primary school-age children. By 2015, achieve universal primary education.

• By 2000, reduce youth unemployment to at least half from the 1995 level. By 2005, reduce further by half and reach full employment by 2010.

13. Without prejudice to member States, or to international conventions and charters, it should be noted that a number of governance indicators to monitor progress in creating the requisite enabling socio-political environment could be used. Such indicators could include, among others, the existence and frequency of local and national elections, the state of transition out of conflicts; legislation passed to strengthen the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts, and, the existence and independence of human rights commissions. For this Conference, however, it is expected that the thematic Report on Governance will make use of the results reported to the various Governance For a that were held during the past two years in the context of SIA activities alluded to in paragraph 7 above.

14. The African Subregional Follow-up Conferences to the Social Summit are planned as collaborative efforts between various UN agencies in such a way that the relevant agencies will be assigned the preparation and presentation of the background documents on the major themes of the Conferences. The themes chosen for the African Subregional Conferences are as follows:

15. The format of the Conferences will feature plenary sessions and thematic groups. Background papers and country statements will be presented to the plenary sessions while facilitators will present discussion points to the thematic groups.

16. Member States will present statements on the progress made since 1995 in the context of regional groups giving their country level perspectives, plans and aspirations. Country statements are suggested to be no more than pages long with the following structure:

09:00 – 10:30 Session 1: Opening

• Welcoming Address by Executive Secretary of ECA
• Welcoming Address by UNDP Representative
• Welcoming Address by the Government.

10:30 – 11:00 Welcome Cocktail

11:00 – 13:00 Session 2: Background Reports

• Introduction of Continental Document
• Progress in Poverty Reduction in Africa
• Progress in Employment Generation, and in Employment-
• related Training of Youth
• Progress in Achieving Social Sector Objectives
• Progress in Governance: ECA

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break

14:30 – 16:00 Break-out Sessions on Thematic Issues

• Group A: Progress in Poverty Reduction (Facilitator: UNDP)
• Group B: Progress in Employment Creation. (Facilitator: ILO)
• Group C: Progress in Achieving Social Sector Objectives (Facilitator: UNICEF)
• Group D: Progress in Governance (Facilitator: ECA).

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee/Tea Break

16:30 – 18:00 Break-out Groups on Thematic Issues (Continuation)

• Group A:Poverty
• Group B:Employment
• Group C:Social Sectors
• Group D:Governance

09:00 – 10:30 Country Presentations, and discussions

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 – 13:00 Country Presentations, and discussions

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break

14:30 – 16:30 Country Presentations, and discussions

16:30 – 17:00 Coffee/Tea break

17:00 – 18:30 Country Presentations, and discussions

09:00 – 10:30 Special Session on Youth and Leadership Training

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 – 12:30 Special Session on Youth and Leadership Training

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch Break

14.00 – 17:00 Preparation of Conference Report/ City Tour

18:00 – 19.00 Adoption of Conference Report and Closing.

Ms. W. Karanja

Economic and Social Policy Analysis Division

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

P.O. Box 3001

Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

Tel.: (251-1) 51 10 56

Fax: (251-1) 51 03 89 – 51 44 16

Mr. S. Jugessur

Officer-in-Charge

NA-SRDC

P.O. Box 316

Tangier, Morocco

Tel.: (212-9) 32 23 46 – 32 23 47

Fax: (212-9) 34 03 57