Africa worst hit by oil prices

Malawi's Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Ken Lipenga, has said that Africa is a net food importer importing approximately USD 20 billion worth of food annually so it is the hardest hit by rising oil and food prices.

"Transport, energy, water and telecommunication infrastructures in Africa also lag far behind the rest of the world," Lipenga said. It is through these unimpressive prevailing socio-economic conditions of Africa that heads of state and government of the African Union, according to Lipenga, adopted NEPAD as a novel framework for shifting the goalposts of the continent from poverty to prosperity.

The G8 summit in 2002 accepted the NEPAD framework as an innovative framework, which provided a platform for renewed partnership between the West and Africa. NEPAD was also hailed as a timely intervention that is capable of helping the continent meet the global targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

The minister added that seven years down the line, NEPAD remains the only framework which Africa engages with the West on Africa's development. "So far the implementation of the programme in a number of countries across the continent has resulted in a number of successes and challenges," he said.

The stakeholder engagement workshop is also geared towards taking stock of the NEPAD process in Malawi to see how the country has fared in translating the vision of the continent into tangible achievements and where the country has failed.

In Malawi NEPAD has been conceptualised both at policy and project levels and it has been institutionalised into the country's national and sectoral development policies and plans. In the Agricultural sector, Malawi has built its Agriculture Development Programme around the pillars of NEPAD Agriculture Programme known as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the budgetary allocation of 10 percent is in line with the 2003 NEPAD Maputo Declaration.

Malawi is implementing NEPAD supported projects in fisheries and science and technology and has also forwarded the Agriculture Development Programme and the Shire/Zambezi Waterway project to the NEPAD secretariat for funding.

"We hope NEPAD will aggressively market the projects and secure funding. I urge all countries in Africa to take the Shire/Zambezi project seriously as they will benefit from it and it will reduce transport cost and link all of us," urged Lipenga.

They also mentioned that they hope to deepen the level of engagement in NEPAD issues and develop a plan of action, which will clearly spell out the roles and responsibilities of everybody in order to make NEPAD process to deliver.

"We will also deepen the level of understanding of how NEPAD processes work so that all of us can prepare bankable projects, which can be successfully marketed by NEPAD and we will also expedite further modalities for integration in NEPAD issues both and the nation and continental levels," according to Lipenga. The minister was hopeful that the outcomes of the Malawi workshop and other countries where NEPAD national stakeholders' workshops have been conducted will be forwarded to the summit of Head of State and AU for consideration.

He lamented that Africa is working hard, but have not yet succeeded in implementing value adding programmes and initiatives and that there is evidence that efforts put in place to fight hunger and poverty are tangible and urged African countries to face the challenges and tackle the problem of rising oil and food prices.

NEPAD deputy chief executive officer, Hesphina Rukato, on the other hand, said Africa is rich in resources, but the challenge lies with their mobilisation towards achieving rapid economic growth and she was happy that many countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa subscribe to the ideals of NEPAD.

The workshop is held at a time when Malawi has just joined NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) as part of the four countries representing the Southern African region. The region has until July 2008 been represented by Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Angola.

The AU summit of the member states of January 2008 decided that in order to widen ownership and leadership of NEPAD among AU members, it would be necessary to put in place a system by which member states to the HSGIC would rotate every two years and the principle of rotation was effected at the just ended 11th AU Assembly in Egypt. The new membership in Southern Africa includes Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. Journalists from South Africa, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania attend the workshop.