Home About SIA Programmes SIA News
Publications Lead Agencies
The message from the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, set the tone for deliberation. The Secretary-General delivered a video-taped address, emphasizing a new wave of progress in Africa, based on peace, democracy, human rights and sustainable development. Together, he stated, these four principles form the pillars of good governance. Assembling at the Forum to find new and more effective ways to implement good governance throughout the African continent, the participants had recognized that there was no single issue of greater importance to either the economic or the political future of Africa.
Good governance, he continued, was one of the conditions for sustainable development. It promoted the most salient features of a free and prosperous society: social justice, transparency, and accountability in the management of public affairs. Most important, good governance demanded the consent and the participation of the governed and the full and lasting involvement of all citizens in the future of their nation. Good governance and democracy, therefore, are indivisible.
The Secretary-General stated that the success of this new wave of progress began with a single and simple proposition – the will of the people. The will of the people had to be the basis of governmental authority in Africa, and Governments duly elected, should not be overthrown by force. That is the foundation of democracy and of good governance. In their efforts to make good governance a promise as well as a reality, Africans are not alone: a new partnership had become possible today to join the efforts of the international community, the commitment of national governments and the energy and initiative of civil society.
Through its System-Wide Special Initiative on Africa, the United Nations stood ready and committed to improve its service and engage African governments in your bilateral and multilateral relations with donors and international agencies.
Concluding his remarks, the Secretary-General observed that the establishment of this Forum, which had brought together government ministers. NGOs and regional organizations directly engaged in governance, was an auspicious testament to the desire for a better, more prosperous future for all of Africa’s people.