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ORIGINS AND FUNCTION NEPAD is a merger of the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Program (MAP) and the OMEGA Plan. The merger was finalized on 3 July 2001. Out of the merger, New African Initiative (NAI) was born. The OAU Summit Heads of State and Government on 11 July 2001 approved NAI. The leaders of G8 countries endorsed the plan on 20 July 2001. The Heads of State Implementation Committee (HSIC) finalized the policy framework on 23 October 2001, and NEPAD was formed. Focusing on “education, health, regional infrastructure, agriculture, market access and preservation of the environment”, NEPAD’s founding was largely due to Thabo Mbeki . Included in NEPAD is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary, self-monitoring instrument to “ensure that the polices and practices of participating states conform to the mutually agreed values, codes and standards contained in NEPAD’s Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic, and Corporate Governance” (Deegan 364). The APRM should increase accountability among aid recipients and offer “practical advice to countries struggling with governance shortcomings” (Deegan 365). During 22 - 23 October 2004 , the NEPAD Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue took place at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg , South Africa . The event was a presentation of a three year review of NEPAD's progress since its formation, and an opportunity for stakeholders from the Private Sector , Civil Society , Government and International Organisations to dialogue on the way forward. NEPAD has embarked upon an "e-schools" program to equip all 600,000 primary and secondary schools in Africa with IT equipment and internet access within 10 years. See NEPAD E-School Program . CRITICISM OF NEPAD NEPAD has met with criticism and opposition from much of civil society in Africa and elsewhere in the world. Critics argue that NEPAD is structured around the belief that investment from the North is essential to the development of Africa, and resent that little popular consultation was undertaken in the formulation of NEPAD. As such, the so-called partnership is often criticised for being an agreement among political and economic elites of the North, whether African or European. Accordingly, the NEPAD acronym has often by critics been referred to as "new partnership for Africa’s domination or destruction", or pronounced humorously as "knee-pad" to depict Africa’s preparedness to stay longer on its knees while pleading for aid. In 2002 , members of some forty African social movements, trade unions, youth and women's organizations, NGOs, religious organizations and others endorsed the African Civil Society Declaration On NEPAD , rejecting NEPAD. The views expressed in the declaration included the following:
Similar views were endorsed by African scholars and activist intellectuals in the 2002 Accra Declaration on Africa's Development Challenges. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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