UNSIA Newsletter Issue 1, December 1997
Special Initiative on Africa: An Overview
The United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa (SIA), launched in March, 1996, singled out Africa’s key advancement challenges and enlisted international community assistance in meeting them through coordinated development commitments.
Over the years, the deteriorating socio-economic situation of the continent has been a constant preoccupation for the UN, which has launched a number of initiatives in favour of Africa. The UN Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development (UN-PAAERD) and its successor, the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s ( UN-NADAF) are the two most recent. Emergence of the UNSIA is a culmination of international efforts to make earlier initiatives more effective in addressing African problems. Indeed, the SIA is firmly linked to, and offers practical ways for, achieving the two broad goals of UN-NADAF.
SIA underscored the importance of consolidating support for positive continental political and economic trends initiated during the 90s.
SIA is different from earlier undertakings in Africa because it seeks to muster indispensable backing for Africa-determined priorities and efforts, and secure pledged international commitment towards goals reflected in the Cairo Plan of Action on Re-launching Africa’s Economic and Social Development. The Plan was adopted by the OAU Summit in 1995.
The SIA’s key programmes have been devised for implementation within 13 development clusters. The focus upon human resource development aimed at poverty reduction promises basic education for all, health services and sector reform, access to safe water and sanitation, and informal sector employment generating opportunities.
Among urgent survival considerations are food security and drought management, supported by equitable and sustainable water resource management. Peace-building, conflict resolution, and extended civil society participation are among prominent governance issues.
Internal resource mobilisation, sustainable debt relief, trade access and opportunities, and south-south cooperation receive special attention under structural reforms, while the extended use of information technology is imperative in accelerating Africa’s development. All African countries are eligible for SIA assistance.
Since the launch of SIA, the separate lead agencies, each of which has accepted commitments in specific target areas, have made significant headway in their respective undertakings.
On resource mobilisation, and the mainstreaming of gender and population, a consensus has emerged on how to advance these objectives.
The World Bank’s lead role for resource mobilisation centres upon health and education in sector-wide country programmes.
UNFPA has agreed to guide the gender/ population mainstreaming within each of the SIA’s clusters.
Notable progress in inter-agency collaboration can be seen in the projects covering Health, Water, Governance, and Information Technology advances.
SIA’s success will be determined by value-added country-level gains. Topic specific technical workshops, such as the one convened by the ECA Executive Secretary in March 1997, have fostered innovative approaches towards value-added gains.
The role of the UN Resident Coordinator, and the UN Country Team, are essential in moving programmes towards fulfillment.
UN Country Team Retreats in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Tanzania have facilitated in-country consultation on SIA’s benefits. Similar retreats are planned for Cape Verde, Congo, and Zimbabwe.
The SIA Technical Working Meeting in September 1997 in New York, chaired by Mr. Trevor Gordon-Somers, clarified a number of technical issues in the programme areas of Education and Governance. The secretariat will convene similar meetings to advance SIA’s implementation.