Infrastructure Development

Draft Report

Third Meeting of the ECA's Infrastructure Cluster for NEPAD
17 Jan. 2006, SDD Conference Room

This third meeting of the ECA Infrastructure Cluster focal points took place in the SDD conference room, on Jan. 17, 2006, from 14h00 to 18h00. The meeting was convened in order to prepare the visit of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Panel (SG AP) on international support to NEPAD in ECA, from February 1^st to 3^rd.

List of Participants:

Focal points from all the sub-clusters of the Infrastructure Cluster of ECA were represented. The following sub-clusters' representatives participated in the meeting:

Jacques Moulot, SDD-UN Energy/Africa - ECA's IC coordinator

Stephen Donkor, SDD-UN Water/Africa

Makane Faye, DISD-ICT sub-cluster

Assafa Bahta, DISD-ICT sub-cluster

Guiebo Marie-Thérèse, TRID-Transport sub-cluster

Demba Diarra, OPC

Agenda of the meeting:

1) Exchange on 2005 activities within cluster

2) Prepare the cluster's position on issues raised by OPC for the visit of the SG-AP on NEPAD

Account of Discussions

Mr. Demba Diarra (OPC) clarified the context of the visit of the SG AP on NEPAD, and the expectations of the Panel while in ECA. He reiterated that the Panel was interested in: assessing the ECA's and UN agencies' support to NEPAD through the process of the regional Consultation; identifying constraints that clusters face in providing that support to NEPAD; and defining how they can assist in improving the UN system support to NEPAD.

The meeting took note of the various activities implemented by the sub-clusters in support of NEPAD, in 2005. The followings can be highlighted:

UN Water/Africa:

• The African Water Development Report (AWDR) is being finalized and will be published in March 2006;

• Progress was made on the African Water Information Clearing House (AWICH) (www.uneca.org/awich), which is an ongoing capacity-building activity at the sub regional level;

• The African Water Facility (AWF) was funded and a pipeline of projects is being developed. The government board is now functional; and

• ECA is actively monitoring and coordinating the implementation of the African Water Vision 2025.

ICT sub-cluster:

• Set up an online discussion list for members of the sub-cluster to share information, exchange ideas and coordinate activities on ICT issues;

• Provided support to Africa throughout the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS);

• ECA sponsored and coordinated the second African Regional Preparatory Conference for the WSIS held in Accra from 2-4 February 2005.

Transport Sub-cluster

• Provided continuing support for the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) for Air Transport Liberalization: two meetings of the monitoring of YD were held in Addis on 3 March and 21 October 2005 respectively. During the latter meeting, participants reviewed the challenges and progress made on the implementation of the Decision and prepared a report, which was submitted to the African Air Transport Ministerial Conference which took place in Sun City- South Africa on 18-19 May 2005.

• Provided continuing support for the implementation of the Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Programme (SSATP). In this regard ECA conducted a workshop on the facilitation of transport and promotion of the major international conventions on transport during the SSATP meetings in Bamako on the 14 November 2005. The aim was to raise awareness among officials about the importance of improving transport facilitation measures.

• Co-organized with AU, with the collaboration of the ADB, EU and the Worldbank the Ministerial meeting on the role of transport in achieving MDGs. The Ministers adopted a declaration which was endorsed by the Head of States requesting the inclusion in the MDGs framework, of transport targets and indicators adopted by the African Ministers in charge of transport and infrastructure in April 2005 with a view to accelerating the achievement of the MDGs;

UN Energy/Africa

• On the issue of information sharing and clearing house: development of the UN Energy/Africa web site and electronic forum;

• On energy access and investments: development of the first mini/micro hydropower capacity building and investment project in Africa;

• On Institution and Policy Reform: completed a Study titled "Making Africa's Power Sector Sustainable" and the implemented an African Stakeholders' Policy Dialogue Forum;

• Regarding joint programming: established an agreement between IAEA and ECA for a training on Capacity building in Integrated Resource Planning (IRP); and

• On inter agency activity coordination session (meeting): organized one meeting of UNE/Africa and one joint meeting between UNE/Africa and UN Energy (global)

The meeting discussed a proposal for a joint activity involving most sub-clusters on the development/implementation of a project on "River Transport on the Congo River". Mr. Stephen Donkor volunteered to draft a project concept note to be shared around all sub-clusters.

Constraints met by the IC Cluster in supporting NEPAD

The meeting acknowledged the progress made in the IC in 2005, but noted that more effectiveness could have been achieved provided solutions were found to the following constraints:

Financial and budgetary constraints:

Many agencies have had difficulties in participating to coordination meetings because of limited budgetary resources dedicated to interagency activities (e.g. travel). This is a hindrance to joint programming of activities. Also the time spent by focal points on joint activities, especially in those agencies that have volunteered to chair/co-chair or serve as secretariat, is not accounted for in the normal work programs of the divisions. Therefore time spent by the secretariat/chair persons appears as purely benevolent.

Budget cycle and agencies work programme constraints:

In order to achieve more efficiency in supporting NEPAD, agencies need to create better coherence and complementarities in their regular work programme activities in support of NEPAD. This can effectively be done only at the earliest stage of programming/design of activities. The different programming/implementation cycles of agencies often prevent the establishment of key partnerships for providing efficient and coherent support to NEPAD.

Cluster's contribution in support to NEPAD is not well accounted for and visible:

The cluster regretted that its activities in support to NEPAD are not well accounted for and reported. For instance, the ECA-led ICT activities are neither reported in the Head of States Implementation Committee's report nor in the Secretary General's report.

Participation of non-UN organizations in the collaboration:

The effective participation of non-UN organizations in the collaborative activities is still slow to materialize. Having acknowledged the comparative advantages of some of these organizations over UN entities, finding solutions to lift the barriers for their effective involvement in the collaborative mechanism must remain an important objective of the IC.

Institutional and Human constraints internal to NEPAD and the RECs:

Some of the formally identified hindrances in providing more effective support of NEPAD remain. They include:

• Evolving institutional status of the NEPAD with respect to the African Union and regional organizations;

• Low and insufficient human and institutional capacity at the NEPAD secretariat and technical divisions;

• Slow progress in the design and formulation of priority energy projects of the NEPAD;

• Unclear procedure and framework on how best development partners can assist NEPAD; and

• Regional Economic Communities (RECs), which are the implementation arm of NEPAD, generally, do not have the human, technical, financial and institutional capacities to play adequately their role.

How can the SG AP on NEPAD help in improving support to NEPAD?

The Secretary General Advisory Panel on NEPAD could provide assistance in promoting:

1. Better visibility of the work of the cluster and sub-clusters in support of NEPAD, in for instance, including a more visible account of ECA's contributions in the SG report;

2. Specific budget provision for interagency collaboration in support of NEPAD that takes into account coordination and consultation activities leading to effective joint programming and implementation in support of NEPAD;

3. Advocating a higher priority at the planning and implementation stages for projects with an inter-agency collaboration implementation component;

4. The definition/clarification of modalities for the effective participation of non-UN organizations in the collaborative mechanisms in support of NEPAD; and

5. More political support in the strengthening of the institutional and human capacities of NEPAD and the RECs in order to increase their participation in the planning and implementation of activities led by their international partners, in particular for NEPAD experts to be actively involved in interagency planning and coordination sessions.

The meeting closed at the conclusion of the agenda.