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Technocrats drafting policy paper By MARK AGUTU Experts from eleven Eastern Africa states yesterday begun drafting a joint regional development policy document to be ratified by Heads of State at next week's Nepad Summit in Nairobi. The three-day working session by the team of technocrats from the East, Central and Horn of Africa states countries kicked off at the Pan Africa hotel, Nairobi. The document will spell out strategies for initiating development in the region, in line with the overall objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development(Nepad). The document will be presented to two subsequent meetings by permanent secretaries and ministers on Monday and Tuesday respectively, before being tabled at the Heads of State Summit on Wednesday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. Countries participating in the event are Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. Kenya hosted a similar meeting in June last year. Yesterday, Planning and National Development Permanent Secretary David Nalo, said this year's summit was taking place against a backdrop of unfilled expectations. They include poor infrastructure, civil strife, unemployment, low capital inflow and lack of access to market for agricultural produce. Others are HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculous which are taking a heavy toll on the most productive human resource, and destroying the region's comparative advantage of cheap labour. Mr Nalo said Nepad had renewed hope for Africans. Technocrats in the region must seize the opportunity to guide the development process in Africa and play a leading role in safeguarding the well-being of their people, he added. The theme of this year' Summit is "Promoting Public-Private Sector Partnership in Implementation of Regional NEPAD Projects in Eastern Africa". Upgrading the region's infrastructure ranked high in the list of top twenty priority issues to be debated at the Summit. Also to be discussed are plans for an optical fibre network linking Africa and the rest of the world, the minister said http://www.nationaudio.com The Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
