NEPAD / AU Development Agency

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The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency is the implementing arm for the AU’s Agenda 2063 development strategy.

The Agency has the primary objective of transforming Africa. It focuses on:

Incubating high-impact projects that demonstrate proof-of-concept to translate the AU’s continental strategic development frameworks into national development priorities
Enhancing knowledge sharing among countries, supported by evidence-based feedback on best practices for regional integration
Brokering partnerships and resource mobilisation for the implementation of the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063.

NEPAD is based in South Africa and is mandated to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of regional and continental priority development programmes and projects, and to push for partnerships, resource mobilisation and research and knowledge management.

The Agency’s programmes are in the areas of:

Human Capital Development (skills, youth, employment and women’s empowerment);
Industrialisation, Science, Technology and Innovation;
Regional Integration
Infrastructure (energy, water, information communications technology (ICT) and transport) and Trade;
Natural Resources Governance;
Food Security.

NEPAD also partners with international financial institutions, UN agencies and Africa’s development partners as a mechanism to support African development efforts

Structure

NEPAD is governed by the AU Assembly, the NEPAD HSGOC (to be disbanded from January 2018) and the NEPAD Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee has been the intermediary body between the HSGOC and the NEPAD Agency. It has the primary responsibility for developing the terms of reference for identified programmes and projects and for overseeing NEPAD Agency activities. The Committee has consisted of personal representatives of the Heads of State and Government on the HSGOC: two from each of the five NEPAD initiating countries (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa) and one from each of the elected members (15 countries chosen from the five AU regions, rotating). The NEPAD Steering Committee’s Rules of Procedure provides for one representative of the AUC Chairperson, if his or her country is not already a member, and for the AUC Chairperson to appoint a personal representative at the level of a commissioner. Each Member State has only one vote regardless of its number of Committee members.

In addition, representatives from the African Peer Review Mechanism, eight AU-recognised Regional Economic Communities (RECs), AUC, African Development Bank (AfDB), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (UNOSAA) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) participate in Steering Committee meetings as observers.

During the June/July 2018 AU Summit held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the Assembly approved the establishment of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) as the technical body of the AU, and requested the AU Commission, in consultation with the NEPAD Planning and Implementation Agency, to develop a statute for AUDA and submit it for adoption at the January 2019 summit. Transition from NEPAD to AUDA will be undertaken as part of the establishment of the latter.