African leaders fail to make breakthrough on NEPAD
15 Apr 2008 17:32:40 GMT Source: Reuters
By Daniel Flynn DAKAR, April 15 (Reuters) - The leaders of Senegal, Algeria, Ethiopia and South Africa met on Tuesday to discuss a stalled Africa-wide development plan, but failed to even agree on a venue for the next meeting. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has long vied with South Africa's Thabo Mbeki for leadership of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), aimed at reducing poverty and promoting good governance on the continent. Tuesday's meeting, which was rescheduled after Mbeki withdrew from a planned summit in November, was unable to reach agreement on whether the next round of talks should be held in Senegal or South Africa, officials said. A press conference scheduled for after the meeting was cancelled. "This was an effort to revitalise NEPAD and to give it a chance to take off again," said Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio. "We hope that we will be able to reach a new deal for the African people so that they do not lose hope in NEPAD." NEPAD was launched with great fanfare six years ago and Senegal was one of its founding members along with South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria. Octogenarian Wade in June accused the organisation of wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and had threatened to boycott its meetings, saying it had become a talking shop. In an effort to streamline NEPAD, Gadio said its institutions would be merged into the structure of the African Union to limit duplication and confusion between the two. Wade had also proposed changing the structure of the organisation to hand more decision-making power to the heads of state, rather than technocrats, Gadio said. The heads of state, who were joined by Nigeria's foreign minister and the Egyptian economy minister, agreed to put forward all the proposals discussed on Tuesday to the next African Union heads of state summit. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Daniel Flynn)
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