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Second ACC Meeting Report
1 June 1995
Key points from the Second Steering Committee Meeting
1. On May 31, 1995 the second meeting of the Initiatives Steering Committee was held in New York. This informal note conveys the key conclusions of the meeting. In due course formal minutes of the meeting will be circulated.
2. Attendance :
Co-Chairs : UNDP (Speth), ECA (Amoako);
Members of the Steering Committee : World Bank (Jaycox), ILO (Chinery-Hesse), UNEP (Amiu);
Others : UNCTAD (Fortin), WHO (Joseph), UNESCO (Ordonez Hamad, Husain), FAO (Hajj), ILO (Lisk, Freedman), World Bank (Cleaver, Haddad), DPSCD (Goued-Njayick), UNDP (Gabriel), UNICEF (Abdi), ECA (Suliman, Ouedraogo), Secretariat (Rasheed, Berg, Engo, and Gorbe).
3. Overview B Key Points :
The agenda of the meeting centered on presentations by representatives of the Working Groups on their key proposed priorities for the Initiative and their plans to develop these further; proposals by the co-chairmen on key themes to group the priorities; an illustrative model of what a priority for the Initiative ought to resemble; timetable for preparation and submission of proposed priorities; ideas for political mobilization; and a schedule of future meetings of the Steering Committee.
4. Reports of the Working Groups :
Representatives of each of the Working Groups reported on the progress made by their respective groups in formulating priorities for the Initiative based on their initial meetings and submissions. They suggested what the most important priorities could be from their work so far and indicated what further work the Groups needed to do. (These discussions will be reported in detail in the minutes). It was perceived that the exchange of views was fruitful and that the Working Groups were doing useful work leading already to the identification of a number of possible priorities. However, it was felt that the number of proposed priorities needed to be reduced considerably and made more concrete. The report of Working Group 5 on Resource Mobilization generated great interest, particularly in regards to ideas on a possible priority on debt, and on utilizing sectoral fora and a country sectoral approach.
5. Proposed Themes for the Initiative :
The Co-Chairman introduced a proposal showing possible groupings of the priorities of the Initiative under four key themes, namely : Give development a chance; New Hope for the Upcoming Generation B Eradicating Absolute Poverty in Africa within 20 Years; Strengthening Capacity for Governance; and Urgency on Survival Issues. This proposal was explained as an inventory of what the Working Groups have submitted so far, rather than a comprehensive approach to development problems in Africa. It was pointed out that the meeting needed to make selections of priorities from among these. A debate ensued on which essentially concurred with these proposals, and which also emphasized that the priorities must reflect specificity, success potential, and spread (multiplier) effects. It was stated that issues of employment, agriculture, and gender could not be ignored in the fashioning of the priorities.
The Steering Committee decided as follows :
(a) The working Groups needed to refine their submissions along the lines of the illustrative model on Education. For all circulated at the meeting. A deadline of 23 June was decided for submission of refined priorities to the Secretariat;
(b) A subgroup including, but not limited to, the World Bank and UNDP, will be formed to formulate a priority on debt;
(c) Working Group 3 will address the issue of "failed states" within their work;
(d) The priorities will be consistent with follow-up actions agreed to major UN conferences, e.g., Cairo, Copenhagen;
(e) The Secretariat will refine and consolidate the refined proposals by the Working Groups for submission to the Third Meeting of the Steering Committee; the main purpose of which will be to give directions on the priorities to be included in the Initiative.
6. Timetable :
It was agreed that the following are key dates for the Steering Committee :
A calendar of upcoming events on Africa was also circulated. Amendments and additions were suggested. Members were invited to add items to it.
7. Political Mobilization :
The meeting considered a proposal by the Secretariat on a possible political mobilization utilizing a group of eminent leaders to support African development. Some participants felt that the best way to mobilize resources is through the merit of proposals; others felt that a political mobilization should include the media, involvement of African leaders and civil society representatives and that in such a mobilization a group of eminent African and other leaders might well play a useful role. It was also felt that such a mobilization should transcend resource mobilization to include helping place Africa as a high priority on the international agenda. It was further suggested that political mobilization be added as an integral theme of the Initiative.
The Co-Chairman, Mr. Amoako, indicated that further work would be done in light of the comments made by members, and that a proposal on political mobilization will subsequently be submitted to the Secretary-General for his consideration.
Members noted the need to engage African leaderships in the formulation of the Initiative. The meeting recognized that it was important to link up and be sensitive to Africa=s priorities as articulated in the recent report of the Council of Ministers of the OAU ("Relaunching Africa=s Economic and Social Development : The Cairo Agenda for Action"). Further consultations with the OUA are anticipated.
It was reiterated that ECOSOC will be briefed on the Initiative in the statements of the Secretary-General and the Administrator of UNDP. It is understood that the report of the UN-NADAF will be centre stage in the High-Level Segment discussion of ECOSOC on Africa.
8. The Third Meeting of the Steering Committee :
The Third Meeting of the Steering Committee will take place on 7 July 1995, in Geneva, in conjunction with the High-Level Segment discussion of ECOSOC on Africa.
In his final summation the Co-Chairman expressed his thanks for the active
participation of the Committee.
