NIGERIA: A PARTICIPANT'S PERSPECTIVE ON NEPAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001346 SIPDIS AF FOR DAS PERRY; AF/W FOR BOOTH, EPSTEIN E FOR ANN PENCE DAKAR FOR POL/ECON E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2012 TAGS: PREL EFIN ECIN ECON EAID PGOV NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: A PARTICIPANT'S PERSPECTIVE ON NEPAD REF: A. STATE 35582 ¶B. PERRY-JETER FAX 03/29/02 ¶C. ABUJA 1027 Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter; Reason 1.5 (b/d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: PolMilOff met on April 9 with Egyptian First Secretary Gamal Metwally for a read-out on the NEPAD meeting SIPDIS in Abuja March 26. While the achievements of the young organization have been more rhetorical than real, some progress has thus far apparently been achieved in defining the group's organizational structure and in refining the various mandates that will ultimately be NEPAD's task to fulfill. END SUMMARY. ========= STRUCTURE ========= ¶2. (U) Organizationally, NEPAD consists of three main bodies, the NEPAD Secretariat, a Steering Committee and an Implementation Committee. The Secretariat (www.nepad.org) is based in Pretoria, and logistical support for the Secretariat's operations is the responsibility of the SAG. SIPDIS The Steering Committee is composed of five countries (Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa). Each member of this quintet has been tasked with developing policy papers and proposals on various aspects of NEPAD's development mandate: --Egypt: Market Access, Diversification of Products and Agriculture --Algeria: Human Development (education, health, etc.) --Nigeria: Economic Governance and Capital Flows --Senegal: Infrastructure (energy, IT, etc.) --South Africa: Political Governance: Peace, Security and Democracy ¶3. (U) Fifteen countries comprise the Implementation Committee; three from each of the five African sub-regions (as decided by the Lusaka Summit in July 2001). This Committee is responsible for reviewing and making recommendations based upon the papers by the Steering Committee. The breakdown is as follows: -NORTH AFRICA: Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia -EAST AFRICA: Ethiopia, Mauritius and Rwanda -WEST AFRICA: Nigeria, Senegal and Mali -CENTRAL AFRICA: Cameroon, Gabon and Congo -SOUTHERN AFRICA: South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana In addition to holding a separate Implementation Committee gathering on the margins of the Dakar Private Sector NEPAD Meeting (15-17 April),the Committee plans to conduct similar sidebars at the Rome World Food Summit (10-13 June),the Ottawa G-8 Meeting (26-28 June) and the Durban OAU Summit (8 July). ¶4. (C) COMMENT: Ref B sparked some concern in Washington, particularly the document listing Liberia, Libya and Sudan as members of a Committee on Peace, Governance and Democracy (Political Governance). The Egyptian explained that the groupings in reftel B were ad hoc formulations for the meetings at the World Economic Forum in New York only. While the designation of the chairmen of the committees (i.e. South Africa's Thabo Mbeki for Political Governance) is firm, the rest of the committees' membership remains a work in progress. Those that helped fill the Political Governance Committee during the World Economic Forum will likely not be replicated when NEPAD permanently fills the committee, particularly those countries that have not participated in any NEPAD deliberations thus far. END COMMENT. ========== HIGHLIGHTS ========== ¶5. (C) Prior to the Summit, the Steering Committee met March 23, and agreed on the need for a code of standards on good governance, human rights, democracy and freedom of expression. The group also agreed that they should propose that the OAU/AU establish a special committee that would undertake a peer review every three years, and would report its findings and recommendations to NEPAD. ¶6. (C) According to the Egyptian diplomat, there were six significant points raised at the Summit itself. a) Nigeria urged the attendees that NEPAD should rebuff any donor attempts to interfere in African domestic affairs as a precondition for supporting NEPAD (i.e. Zimbabwe). b) The assembly agreed on the need for African civil society to participate in the work of the Implementation Committee. c) The attendees agreed to expand NEPAD to include participation of all African countries. d) They decided that NEPAD was not a new, independent organization, but that it falls under the aegis of the OAU/AU. e) The Summit identified as priority the need to develop an assessment paper to distribute at the G-8 Summit explaining the goals of NEPAD. f) Summiteers stressed the utility of regional and sub-regional organizations' participation in implementing the NEPAD program. ¶7. (C) During the Summit, Algerian President Bouteflika proposed the establishment of an African Penal Court, which will be discussed further at the OAU Summit in July in Durban. Additionally, Nigeria presented a draft declaration on democracy and good governance, and requested the document be endorsed by NEPAD. ======= COMMENT ======= ¶8. (C) Nigeria and other African states were somewhat rattled by Washington's linkage of our support for NEPAD to African Governments' positions on the Zimbabwean election. As stated to us by a Canadian diplomat reflecting on PM Chretien's visit to Nigeria April 4-7, Obasanjo sees himself as one of the good guys in Africa, and thus expects additional latitude from his partners such as the United States when dealing with African issues. He also expects strong Western support for NEPAD. ¶9. (C) The Egyptian diplomat confided that while African leaders had a tradition of making grand statements while doing little to implement their ideas, they now appeared to understand the importance of doing the necessary but difficult work of making NEPAD a reality. JETER