Nepad is No Solution

Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg), 24 May 2002

Nepad has been imposed on the continent by the few governments and elites, supported by the countries of the North and the Bretton Woods institutions [World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation]. Africa and her people have not been involved in devising this path of development.

So says the breakaway Civil Society Indaba, which claims to include delegates from some rural and urban communities, youth, women, First Nations Indigenous People and some NGOs, writes Glenda Daniels.

The New Partnership for Africa's Developmenty (Nepad) embraces the forces of neo-liberal globalisation and promotes these forces as a cure for Africa's ills, while at the same time embracing the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation.

The Indaba believes the development path adopted by Nepad will push Africa and her people further into poverty, ill-health, hunger and marginalisation. It interprets the policies of Nepad as:

• Playing a leading role in private-sector development.
• Promoting the privatisation of the provision of infrastructure, which will cause job losses and impoverishment.
• Promoting free trade, which has led to the destruction of Africa's industries and the livelihoods of its people.
• Promoting a market-oriented agriculture, which has led to profound food insecurity on the continent.
• Increasing direct foreign investment, which has failed to live up to the promise of more jobs and prosperity for the continent.