SPEECH BY LN SISULU MINISTER OF HOUSING

AT THE OPENING OF SOUTH AFRICA’S NATIONAL NEPAD STRATEGY WORKSHOP

Directors-General;
Members of civil society, the media and the business community;
Distinguished delegates; 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 

In July this year, NEPAD, the programme that we as governments in Africa adopted to guide us to achieve the common vision of eradicating poverty within the continent, will be five years old. In itself this will be an important marker of the road that Africa has traversed since the adoption and the approval of the bold vision contained in the programme by Africa’s leadership in 2001. For us in South Africa, in particular to us as the collective gathered here, in the context of our gathering, the significance of the achievement will be in the fact of the critical role we have played in ensuring both the sustenance and the achievements of the programme to date. This is as you would recall in the context, as the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union noted in 2005 in its review of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals noted, where the lack of resources was a great hindrance to the achievement of developmental ambitions and goals of NEPAD. 

In the establishment of projects and programmes relating to ICT, energy, water and sanitation, transport infrastructure, telecommunications, agriculture and health, the issue of financing and resources loomed large. Thus, it was envisaged that half of the $8 billion that was projected for the projects was to come from the private sector. Regardless, the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU noted that as achievements that resource mobilization had already begun for some of these projects and that critical institutions in Africa such as the African Development Bank were playing part in making NEPAD succeed.  

As I indicated South Africa has played a key role in the NEPAD processes and initiatives including the mobilization international support for it. It is thus natural and in accordance with our objectives and the common vision we share with the continent that we should be gathered here to seek ways and means on enhancing our involvement and participation in NEPAD, not only as government, but also as members of civil society as well as the business community. That we must seek ways to orient the whole of government entailing Cabinet Clusters, Departments, Provincial and Local Government, Parliament and State Owned Enterprises towards the achievement of the goals and vision contained in NEPAD, is to us a logical conclusion of the work that we have started. It is a duty to the people’s of the continent whilst being a privilege at the same time.  

          Utilizing the resources and the capacity we have share in the vision to rid ourselves and the continent of the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world. We share and identify with the vision to banish poverty. And we share and identify with the vision to seek lasting peace and stability. All of these objectives and goals have been the scourges through which Africa has been identified and its people crippled and their lives shortened. Thus, the establishment of NEPAD. 

As members and the leadership from the public and private sectors, labour and civil society we are gathered here to ensure the fulfilment of the vision of NEPAD, we are here to give effect to its implementation. I have no doubt that that we will learn from each other and share the load of delivering on the expectations of our leaders and our constituencies.   

We would need to develop collectively a programme and its modalities to integrate and internalise the NEPAD values, principles and objectives in our various spheres of work. We would need to align our organisations and Departments with NEPAD and its programmes so as to deepen the ownership of the programme by all of us.  

Never before has the African continent produced such a comprehensive home grown development programme, which has forced itself onto the forefront of the development agendas of the United Nations, the G8 and regional groupings from Asia, Europe and the Americas. The Secretary General of the United Nations created the Office of Special Adviser on Africa and mandated it to co-ordinate global advocacy in support of the implementation of NEPAD and to act as Focal Point for NEPAD within the UN system.  Consequently, the UN structures in Africa were encouraged to reflect and advance NEPAD in their engagement with the continent.  This was shortly after the General Assembly of the United Nations had recognised NEPAD as the framework for Africa’s development in September 2002.   

Interest in NEPAD at continental and international level is unprecedented.  And in the words of the UN Secretary General, “the central challenge is to grasp the opportunity and maintain the momentum”.  In order for us to work together to realise the objectives of NEPAD, we all need to buy-in and have a clear understanding of what NEPAD is and what role we can collectively and severally play in our various organisations. 

It is for this purpose that we are meeting here today.  Apart from anything else, the media and our communications units can create increased awareness of the ideals of NEPAD.  The rest of us can support their communication and advocacy strategies by demonstrating quick deliverables to those who wait for service.   

We are better placed as a country to lead in the implementation of NEPAD. We have the political will and a vibrant private sector.  Through private sector investment in NEPAD infrastructure projects we can create an environment conducive for investment in the continent.  You will agree with me that the fundamentals as well as the risks and costs for doing business in Africa are slowly but surely being addressed.   

On issues relating to human capacity and capital that as I have indicated are challenges to the implementation of NEPAD, we are at an advantageous position relative to others. We would need to make full use of these capacities to advance NEPAD and demonstrate this commitment in the outcome of our discussions here.  

There is no reason why NEPAD infrastructure projects that have funding allocations by the African Development Bank should continue to stall.  We speak about our ownership of Africa’s development agenda then we have the obligation to follow through our statements and objectives. 

The inspiration and the determination that is being shown by our leadership collectively in the continent to resolve conflicts should inspire us.  They are committing troops, their time and even their countries’ limited capital resources to deal with these conflicts.   

They have fully mobilised the international community on Africa’s development. Our co-operation with the G8 has been continually strengthening since Kananaskis in 2002.  We also work closely with the EU, the OECD and Asian countries in the advancement of NEPAD.   

The document that will emerge out of this Workshop will be presented to Cabinet for consideration.  Once it is approved, we will have a NEPAD Implementation Strategy for South Africa which is already being branded NISSA. That strategy should reflect our envisaged roles as national, provincial and local government role players and civil society and business actors.   

As for the National Government Departments, your meeting this morning must have also given you clear ideas about how you may align your Departments’s Work Plans to reflect and advance the objectives of NEPAD.      

I am advised that the workshop will also deliberate on what a NEPAD project is for our purposes.  In January this year, during the 14^th Summit of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government, who are charged with the responsibility of implementing NEPAD, the question of what a NEPAD project is came up. The NEPAD Heads of State and Government consequently agreed to meet in June in Dakar, Senegal, to deliberate, among others, on what a NEPAD project is as opposed to a national project. The work you do here will help us prepare as a country for this important Summit. 

With this in mind, two weeks ago in Nairobi, as the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development we resolved to approach NEPAD to establish projects for slum prevention and upgrading. We also resolved that to ask NEPAD to support national pilot projects that will be established by countries individually in respect to slum prevention and upgrading. This we did following our own achievements in raising the need with the international community of at least halving the slum population by 2020 and to mobilise and arrange for the requisite resources in that regard. Those who had been following this development would know well that we needed to take up cadgels as the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development to get the outcome from the World Summit, last year. We were convinced that without adequately and speedily addressing Africa’s most pressing and immediate urban challenge, that is, the exponential growth of slums, would drown all the developmental initiatives and especially NEPAD. We were convinced that stable and peaceful communities can only be achievable where there is access to housing and shelter for all. For us the lessons of Europe and Asia were instructive in this regard. As a result, we also took a resolution mandating the Secretariat to develop a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, in the mould of the Peer Review Mechanism, for us to follow through on the commitments we have made on preventing and eradicating slums in Africa. For me, this was an innovation and truly a bold undertaking on our part, as the housing sector, aimed at enhancing NEPAD and ensuring that programmes are in place to achieve an integrated and a peaceful Africa.  

In discussing the matter therefore I would be interested to know how proposals such ours are conceptualised within the guidelines for concrete action and advancement.  

Lastly, you have all already participated meaningfully in giving expression to NEPAD. All of you here (Provincial Governments, National Government Departments, Parliament, the Private Sector and various civil society organisations including academic institutions, research institutions, professional organisations, etc) have participated in the national African Peer Review Mechanism process when you completed the related Questionnaire. The National APRM Secretariat received your submissions, analysed them, produced technical reports on the four APRM thematic areas of Democracy and Good Political Governance; Economic Governance and Management; Corporate Governance and Socio-economic Development. According to the current time-table of South Africa’s National APRM Secretariat, the Country Self Assessment Report and Draft National Programme of Action will be submitted to the APR Secretariat and the Review Panel before the end of June this year.  You, as citizens of South Africa, will be asked to comment on the Draft Country Self Assessment and the Programme of Action before the end of September this year, after which it will be presented to the APR Forum of Heads of State and Government participating in the APRM. 

Twenty-six countries have already acceded to the APRM Memorandum of Understanding.  This is about half of all African countries.  The pace of peer reviews is accelerating.  In the coming few years, the peers will have assisted one another to adopt policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice, including identifying deficiencies and assessing the needs for capacity building.    

NEPAD therefore is not a theoretic approach to development.  It is a pragmatic programme seeking to have tangible deliverables. You should feel proud of your contribution thus far, as Heads of Organisations, Institutions and Government Departments, to give meaning to NEPAD principles and objectives.  

I trust you will have a fruitful and a successful workshop.

I thank you.