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Executive Summary
The Consultation "National Civil Society Forum on NEPAD" took place on 27 October 2003 at the Ufungamano House, Nairobi. The main objectives of the one day workshop were to:-
- Create awareness and bring participants to the same level of understanding of NEPAD (i.e., capacity building for national civil society organisations (CSOs) on NEPAD);
- Provide an opportunity for national CSOs to interact, consult and articulate their priorities vis a vis the implementation of NEPAD in Eastern Africa, and Kenya in particular;
- Serve as an advocacy platform for the domestication and mainstreaming of NEPAD from a Civil society perspective;
- Identify possible areas of collaboration or practical partnerships between the government, private sector and CSOs necessary to enhance the NEPAD agenda at the national and local levels; and identify the way forward.
The workshop was attended by a total of fifty-two participants with participants drawn from community based organizations, non-governmental organizations, social and environmental justice networks, representatives from the universities and religious organizations as well as regional and international institutions.
The Workshop consisted of three plenary sessions. It was arranged around plenary speeches and statements, presentations and highlights on key sectoral priorities and plenary discussions. The specific issues addressed during the workshop were: -
- CSOs Historical Relationship with NEPAD
- Regional Economic Communities: Significance of Partnerships
- Introduction and Background to NEPAD
- WTO, MDGs and NEPAD: Challenges and suggestions for Way Forward
- Infrastructure-Road, Rail and Water Networks: Significance in Poverty Eradication
- ICTs
The last session of the workshop focused on discussing the way forward and the discussions arising from the recommendations were captured and are synthesized and summarized below:
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Continued inclusion and consultations with the civil society sector on the implementation of NEPAD. The Forum further called for the development of a civil society Engagement Strategy at the NEPAD National Secretariat in Kenya.
- That the NEPAD process must emphasise on food security and food sovereignty, promote intra-African trade and develop local markets through integration processes at political and economic levels
- The Forum endorsed Climate Network Africa (CNA) to serve as the National Civil Society Focal Point (NFP) for NEPAD in Kenya, and to, among other issues, engage the NEPAD National Secretariat on CSOs issues, as it relates to NEPAD, to mobilize the CSO national NEPAD engagement process, to assure information flow and feedback to and for other NGOs and CSOs and to develop draft guidelines for an inclusive civil society structure, based on sectoral and thematic representation to the National CSO Steering Committee for NEPAD
- The Forum resolved to lead the process of facilitating the stimulus to influence other Civil society sectors and in particular non- governmental organizations in the East African region to engage their respective governments in the NEPAD process and push for in depth role of CSO in the Peer review mechanism, as it was noted that many African leaders are not accountable and transparent to the populace in terms of respect for human rights, good governance and democracy.
At the end of the workshop, the participants had consolidated the views of the civil society with regard to CSO
engagement and participation in NEPAD and proposed options for developing a solid institutional framework
for the co-ordination of national civil society NEPAD process.
Some representatives from the Forum later participated at the two day Regional NEPAD Ministerial and Heads of States
Meeting whose theme was "Promoting Public-Private Partnerships in Implementation of NEPAD Projects in Eastern Africa"
held at the Kenyatta International Conference on the 28th -29th October 2003.
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