NEPAD is designed to address the current challenges facing the African continent. Issues, such as escalating poverty levels, underdevelopment and the continued marginalization of Africa, needed a new radical intervention, spearheaded by African leaders, to develop a new vision that would guarantee African renewal.

 

NEPAD’s four primary objectives are:

 

  • To eradicate poverty,
  • Promote sustainable growth and development,
  • Integrate Africa in the world economy, and
  • Accelerate the empowerment of women.

 

 

 

 

THE STRUCTURE FOR IMPLEMENTING NEPAD

NEPAD is a programme of the African Union (AU) designed to meet its development objectives. The highest authority of the NEPAD implementation process is the Heads of State and Government Summit of the African Union. 
The Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) comprises 4 states per AU region. The five initiating countries are permanent members.  Otherwise, membership is rotating, and currently, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Sudan and Rwanda represent the East African region. The Steering Committee of NEPAD comprises the Personal Representatives of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government who sit on the HSGIC. The NEPAD Steering Committee oversees projects and programme development. 

The day-to-day running of NEPAD is the responsibility of the NEPAD Secretariat based in Midrand, South Africa. It coordinates implementation of projects and programmes approved by the HSGIC. 

NEPAD KENYA PARTICIPATION  
In Kenya, implementation of the NEPAD initiative was institutionalized through a Presidential Executive Order in 2002, which established a National Steering Committee (NSC) to spearhead Kenya’s participation in the NEPAD process. The Mandate of the NSC is: 

  1. a. To intensify Kenya’s participation in the activities of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) at all appropriate levels;
  2. b. To oversee regional projects that have a direct link with national priorities;
  3. c. To co-ordinate priority projects identified in the Poverty Reduction Strategy paper (now Vision 2030) and NEPAD;
  4. d. To oversee the implementation of Kenya’s national development goals in relation to NEPAD priorities;
  5. e. To market the NEPAD initiative among the business community in Kenya and
  6. f. To give direction to the National Secretariat which shall be responsible for implementing the decisions of the National Steering Committee.

Subsequently, in 2003, the NEPAD Kenya Secretariat was established as a semi-autonomous agency in the then Ministry of Planning and National Development (now Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030) to serve as an operational coordinating secretariat for the implementation of the NEPAD priority programmes and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). In addition, at the 2nd Eastern Africa Region Heads of State and Government Summit on NEPAD held in Nairobi in October 2003, Kenya was given a mandate to be the Regional Coordinator of NEPAD activities in Eastern Africa as an interim measure.  

HOW NEPAD COMPLEMENT KENYA’S OWN EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

NEPAD and APRM are driven by the conviction that Africa’s development problems and challenges can only be addressed by Africa’s own commitment and concerted action. The NEPAD Strategic Policy Framework does not attempt to dictate how the various African countries should organize themselves to participate in the initiative. Rather it provides the policy and programme direction within which states, sub-regional bodies, and continental structures can operate and prioritise, adapt and design their own programmes according to their own needs and local realities. All initiatives promoted by individual African countries should be subsumed under the NEPAD process to represent a basis on which Africa can collectively and effectively cooperate with its development partners.