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THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM-WIDE SPECIAL INITIATIVE ON AFRICA
REPORT OF SEVENTH MEETING OF THE ACC STEERING
COMMITTEE
Special Initiative on Africa
A. Introductory remarks of the Co-chairs
1. In his opening remarks, Mr. James Gustave Speth, Co-chair of the ACC Steering Committee of the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa (UNSIA) expressed his gratitude to all participating agencies for their leadership. He emphasized the need to ensure that progress in implementation is steady as we enter the third year of the Special Initiative, in order to mobilize African advocacy including Heads of States and Ministers. He mentioned his satisfaction with positive developments registered in four important areas, and concerns over what appears to be a lack of progress in those important sectors that are lagging behind in their implementation. He invited participants to contribute actively to the meeting and send the signal to the Secretary-General that the message contained in the special issue of Africa Recovery, affirming his leadership in UNSIA, is galvanizing progress.
2. The floor was then turned to Mr. K.Y. Amoako, co-chair of UNSIA, to lead the discussions. He indicated the importance of the meeting in taking stock of achievements since the last Steering Committee meeting. He referred to the Technical Working Group meeting held in September 1997 in New York, which was helpful in spurring progress in two important clusters e.g. governance and education. He then briefed the meeting on the retreat organized by the UNSIA Secretariat in New York, in February 1998 as a prelude to the ACC Steering Committee meeting, indicating the pertinent conclusions and recommendations which came out of this retreat. Participants from ECA, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIFEM, World Bank, WHO, Resident Co-ordinators (Ethiopia, Ghana and Mozambique) and three reputable consultants reviewed implementation since the launch and suggested strategies to generate progress. He particularly stressed the value of candid discussions during the retreat based on the report prepared by the UNSIA Secretariat, and urged that a similar approach be adopted at the ACC Steering Committee meeting.
3. The retreat highlighted the need to build ambitious and substantive partnerships around the UNSIA. The ingredients of such partnerships include: evidence of clear national ownership of policy strategies and programmes; demonstrated leadership by United Nations coordinating agencies; collaboration with other partners, particularly donors; effective resource mobilization strategies; and regular and reliable dissemination of information.
4. Focusing on the importance of demonstrated leadership of coordinating agencies, Mr. Amoako referred to the decisions of the fourth Steering Committee meeting held in Nairobi in April 1996, which entrusted responsibilities for timely implementation to coordinating agencies of individual clusters. These agencies were requested to convene regular cluster meetings, set implementation arrangements, including division of labor, prepare work programmes emphasizing collaborative action and indicate resource requirements and mobilization strategies. The maturation of this collaborative process remains somewhat uneven. Mr. Amoako reminded the meeting that the success of the Special Initiative is the collective responsibility of the United Nations system consistent with the commitment expressed by all Executive Heads during the launch in March 1996.
B. Areas of Demonstrated Progress
5. Collaborative efforts by UN coordinating and cooperating agencies in the priority areas of education, health, governance and harnessing information technology for development have demonstrated that UNSIA is taking hold.
6. In education, fifteen countries with low enrolment rates are being targeted through the collaborative work of the lead agencies the World Bank and UNESCO (Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia). In cooperation with UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA, supported by donors, action plans have been prepared to address policy and programme impediments, thereby improving access to resource flows for education. In addition, the Initiative’s framework is being utilized in Zimbabwe to improve the quality of education and raise the primary school enrolment rate from 85% to 100% in the first year of the next century.
7. In governance, under the leadership of UNDP and ECA, the Africa Governance Forum series that was introduced in Addis Ababa in July 1997, aims at building partnerships, promoting in-country coordination, sharing information on best practices and increasing resources for good governance. Fourteen countries participated in the first Forum (Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda) and sixteen have been invited to the second Forum, scheduled to take place in Ghana in June 1998 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The theme for the next Forum is accountability and transparency. Civil society organizations and donors are active participants in the Forum.
8. UNESCO and ECA cooperation in Communication for Peace, in six pilot countries is another indicator of progress in this area (Angola, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia and Mali).
9. In health, WHO and the World Bank, lead agencies for this cluster, have recently concluded an agreement to ensure that resources are made available for upstream, regional and inter-regional work to support health sector reform. The African health panel’s collaboration in the implementation of UNSIA was also agreed upon.
10. In the harnessing information technology for development (HITD) cluster, ECA leadership, supported by UNDP, has resulted in the agreement that the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) becomes the implementation framework for HITD. This initiative combines efforts and resources of Government and private sector and is an action framework for building Africa’s information and communication infrastructure. It calls for elaboration and implementation of national information and communication infrastructure plans, and development of institutional frameworks as well as human and technological resources in all African countries. This includes increased internet connectivity, promoting development and dissemination of sector applications and capacity building in computer networking and informatic applications. Projects already implemented or under way include UNDP’s Internet Initiative for Africa, a $6 million project to improve connectivity in 12 countries and UNCTAD’s Trade Points initiative to develop trade efficiency networks in Africa, for which the European Union has pledged $33 million.
11. The meeting reached consensus on what is needed for a successful implementation of the Special Initiative. This should lead to poverty eradication and sustainable growth, assertive mainstreaming of gender within the identified priority areas. Besides the advocacy aspect, concrete coordinated actions are still needed in the area of gender equality. Following the February 1998 retreat, an issues paper was prepared jointly by UNIFEM, UNDP and UNSIA Secretariat. The upcoming fortieth anniversary of ECA with its focus on "African Women and Economic Development" will provide an excellent opportunity for advancing this effort, taking into account the high-level attendance, i.e. African Heads of State and Ministers, the United Nations Secretary-General, Heads of United Nations entities and donor representatives.
12. The importance of population to African development is widely acknowledged leading to the conclusion that this cross-cutting issue needs to be given greater prominence within the UNSIA framework. UNFPA has submitted a note proposing an approach for a fuller integration of population issues in the various priority areas such as education (increasing girls education) and health (reproductive health). Specific actions geared towards building capacity at local level to formulate sound population programmes, consistent with the recommendations of the world Social Summit are also included in the UNFPA paper. UNFPA Executive Director indicated in her presentation that notwithstanding many positive developments in the field of population, more synergy could be achieved from coordinated actions of UN agencies and organizations in close cooperation with donors. She also pointed to resources earmarked in support of sound population policies in Africa by many external partners, reiterating the need for African countries’ own efforts in budget allocations as a way of reinforcing advocacy and enhancing potential donors’ support.
C. Other Priority Areas
13. The meeting acknowledged the importance of other priority areas (food security, poverty reduction through informal sector development, trade, water) for Africa’s development and agreed that significant work was being undertaken by lead agencies (FAO, ILO, UNCTAD, UNEP/World Bank) to develop relevant initiatives however, information on these developments was not always readily available. From recent reports, there are indications of collaboration among cooperating agencies but in some instances coherent Africa-specific implementation strategies are lacking, synergies within the UN system are not evident, and the desire to participate fully in the UNSIA is still emerging.
14. Food security: Interesting discussions took place following FAO’s presentation. The FAO representative highlighted the on-going work as follow-up to the World Food Summit indicating that actions undertaken in that context are under the oversight of the ACC. This follow-up is carried out through two thematic working groups at country level (food security and rural development). Participants called on FAO to pull the system together for greater synergy, to provide information more promptly and systematically other organizations and agencies and support the work of thematic groups at the country level. The cross-sector dimension of food and the inter-agency availability is expected to bring out the nexus of agricultural production, food processing, infrastructure and population. The integral relationships in Africa between food, poverty, gender and marketing were also stressed.
15. Poverty reduction: ILO pointed to many activities envisaged and a policy document adopted by an inter-agency task force. Given the growing importance of the informal sector in the majority of African countries, the policy document suggested that Governments should be encouraged to enunciate clear policies. The ILO representative also indicated that discussions aimed at mobilizing donor support in this area are encouraging and that a global effort to build partnership could be fostered. He further suggested that the Job-for-Africa Programme is ready for implementation. Support is provided by UNDP and OAU was involved since the early stages of formulating the strategy. Pilot countries for implementation have already been selected. The discussions on poverty reduction led to the conclusions that more efforts are still needed including information dissemination, clarification of the division of responsibility for future actions still need to be clarified together and a sound resource mobilization strategy.
16. Trade: UNCTAD reported on a number of on-going activities including a high level meeting for least developed countries (LDC); trade development, mobilization of private sector, investment guidance and African countries’ forum on economic competitiveness prior to DAVOS 1999. The meeting felt that more effective coordination and a focus on wider partnership was lacking in bringing this cluster to a recognizable level of implementation in the UNSIA framework. The relationship between trade and investment will gain from the integration of the UNIDO led "Alliance for Africa’s Industrialization" and the experience of the on-going work led by ECA for the decade for Africa’s industrialization.
17. Water: In presenting activities in this cluster, UNEP recognized the need for greater leadership of coordinating agencies and the translation of the priority given to UNSIA by various executive boards into increased financial support. The necessity to refocus activities in this cluster with clear objectives and monitorable results, building on the recent Paris meeting and the next one scheduled to take place in April was also emphasized. During discussions, suggestions were made to take into consideration the WHO- led Africa 2000 Initiative, reflecting the relationship between water and sanitation, especially given the outbreak of cholera in many African countries. WMO’s work on fresh-water assessment as well as the shared river basins ought to be taken into consideration.
D. Conclusions
18. The outcome of this seven ACC Steering Committee meeting could represent a turning point for the Initiative provided the necessary follow-up is put in place. Important decisions were taken during this meeting, i.e. reinforcing country level operation under the leadership of the Resident Coordinators, UNDAF process taking cognisance of UNSIA to promote joint programming and reinforce coordination, actions to further the maturation process of coordination to reach the desirable synergy as well as specific recommendations to strengthen cooperation and spur progress in the implementation in the lagging clusters.
19. The special issue of Africa Recovery prepared in cooperation with the UNSIA Secretariat showed evidence of the leadership provided by the United Nations Secretary-General. The interview with Heads/or Senior officials of United Nations agencies and organizations including the Bretton Woods institutions emphasized the collective responsibility of all participating institutions to follow through the commitment for timely implementation of UNSIA. The manifestation of renewed interest in UNSIA from almost all clusters and the need to improve information dissemination was also stressed. The full compliance of all to provide regular information highlighting UNSIA’s added value and not exclusively focusing on individual organizational activities will be helpful to the UNSIA Secretariat in the dissemination information, advocacy and to support cross- fertilization among clusters.
20. The meeting also discussed the financing aspect and concluded that in face of declining the official development assistance (ODA) and scarce private investment for Africa, the United Nations Special Initiative should become a more relevant instrument for greater programme coherence, improved AID effectiveness and ultimately, increased flows.
21. While the importance of various priority areas was recognized, it was felt that this must be accompanied by concrete financial arrangements: Government commitment of national resources for implementation of these activities; a reordering of priorities of the United Nations agencies and approval of new financial resources by the governing bodies.
22. Trust Funds for support of upstream, sub-regional and regional activities in the areas of education and governance similar to those administered by the World Bank and UNDP, should be expanded and applied in other sectors, such as health. At country-level resource mobilization by Resident Coordinators and United Nations country teams, is likely to prove a significant source of additional resources. Early involvement of donor representatives in policy dialogues around upstream activities supported by UNSIA can help in building wider partnership.
E. Recommendations
23. The meeting therefore proposed approaches in the priority areas to ensure greater progress:
Recognizing that food security has cross-sector implications, FAO was asked to consider bringing the African follow-up to the World Food Summit within UNSIA. FAO may wish to consider organizing a technical working group of interested United Nations organizations.
UNCTAD was requested to organize a technical working group of United Nations cooperating agencies to take advantage of collaborative work already underway in the area of trade and investment. UNIDO was invited to participate in the context of the Alliance for Africa’s Industrialisation.
ILO presented a programme for poverty reduction through informal sector development with a price tag of US$1.5 billion. While the programme reflected extensive consultation throughout the system, a strategy to mobilize resources needs to be developed. ILO was requested to organize a technical working group meeting on this proposal which the ECA Executive Secretary has offered to chair.
UNEP, lead agency in various aspects of water development, acknowledged that progress was impeded by scarce resources and unclear division of responsibilities in some components. The coordinating agencies were therefore requested to consult with interested United Nations agencies, possibly building on the outcome of the recent Paris meeting and to prepare a technical issues paper to streamline activities in this cluster. A technical working group meeting should be called by the coordinating agencies.
Convene a meeting involving the World Bank, UNDP, ECA and other interested agencies to review the experience of resource mobilization in the different priority areas and the Special Initiative as a whole in view of proposing strategies for replication of best practices identified.
The above mentioned Technical Working Group meetings will discuss strategies to spur progress and identify substantive issues impeding implementation for further discussions at Steering Committee and ACC meetings.
Executive Heads were called upon to continue to provide clear guidance to their field Representatives to ensure optimal collaboration in promoting country level implementation of UNSIA. This recommendation was endorsed by ACC.
UNSIA Secretariat
30 April 1998