The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is an initiative adopted by African leaders as a strategy for managing Africa’s self-development and integration into the global economy in the 21st century. The initiative is focused on creating conducive conditions for economic growth and sustainable development for Africa through forging of a new partnership anchored on fairness and equality, a partnership both between African countries, and between Africa and the international community. The overarching objective of NEPAD is to eradicate poverty and to place African countries, both individually and collectively on a path of sustainable economic growth and development.
NEPAD Environment initiative
The sustainable use of African natural resources and the protection of the environment has been recognized as an important component for achieving the objective of NEPAD. Therefore, one of the key segments of the overall programme of action for NEPAD is the Environment Initiative of which the Government of Senegal is the designated coordinator.
A coherent and strategic environment Action Plan has been prepared to promote Africa’s sustainable development. This is consistent with NEPAD’s emphasis on measures that will ensure that the continent is able to confront its short-term economic growth challenges without losing sight of the long-term environmental, poverty eradication and social development imperatives. The Plan was adopted at the Second Summit of the African Union which was held in Maputo from 10th to 12th July 2003.
The Action Plan identifies eight broad programmatic sectors and project activities to be implemented over an initial period of ten years. The coastal and marine sub-theme (in short referred to as NEPAD COSMAR) is one of the programmatic sectors. Log in http://www.nepad.org/files/envitourism for a full list of all programme areas of the NEPAD environment initiative.
NEPAD COSMAR Programme
The Coastal and Marine Programme area of NEPAD Environment Initiative had a head start through a Global Environment Facility (GEF) medium-sized project (http://www.acops.org/African_Process/GEF_MSP.htm), the “African Process for the Development and Protection of the Coastal and Marine Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa” that involved eleven coastal states from November 2000 to September 2002. Through this project, participating countries carried out a comprehensive assessment of the threat and causes of degradation in the coastal and marine environments.
The project identified main issues affecting the coastal and marine environment as:
· Loss and modification of habitats
· Overexploitation of fisheries resources and other living resources
· Pollution
· Impacts of uncontrolled tourism development
· Modification of river flow
The assessment by countries led to the development of detailed programme of action and a portfolio of regional projects to address the identified issues affecting the coastal and marine environment of sub-Saharan Africa. A Partnership conference at the level of Heads of State held in conjunction with the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in September 2002 endorsed the output of the African process and approved its integration as the coastal and marine programme of the NEPAD Environment Initiative.
Objectives of NEPAD COSMAR
The overall objectives of COSMAR are:
· Contribute to the reversal of the trend of marine environmental degradation that impedes poverty alleviation efforts in Africa;
· Mainstream coastal and marine issues within NEPAD and serve as the focal point for engagement with Africa’s principal socio-economic development agenda.
The activities of COSMAR programme are executed in close collaboration with the Regional Co-ordinating Units (RCUs) of the Abidjan and Nairobi conventions as well as other Regional Seas programmes involving African countries.
|
