The action plan, an initiative of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, provides a roadmap for fighting extreme poverty, hunger and disease to achieve the MDGs by 2015 and comes at a time when there is growing anxiety that many African nations are not on track to meet the goals.
It outlines focused investments in agriculture, education, health and infrastructure, seen as critical to present and future efforts to reach the MDGs, and was jointly produced and endorsed by the UN, the AU Commission, African Development Bank (AfDB), and the European Commission. AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said African leaders were looking to the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations to turn their existing promises into action. He noted that the existing EU and G8 commitments, combined with the present aid flows from others sources, were sufficient to fund the plan.
With the momentum generated by strong economic growth rates in many African countries, increased commitment to domestic resource mobilisation, improving governance and
better policy performance, Africa could still achieve the MDGs by the year 2015.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is also to use the forth coming
G8 Summit as a platform to reaffirm the African Action Plan Programme, President Thabo Mbeki said.
Source: NEPAD Briefs