Programme
The imperative of accelerated regional economic integration is reflected in African nations’ move towards the formation of the African Union (AU) and in leading initiatives for economic development such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). ADF III builds upon its established track record of cutting-edge debate and the widest stakeholder participation, to promote regional economic and political integration. ADF III will be the critical coming together of Africans, including governments, the private sector, experts, international organizations and other stakeholders, to seek consensus and ownership of regional integration.
DAY 1, Sunday 3 March 2002 - Pre-Forum Meetings
AU Symposium: A pre-ADF event to examine the current status of the transition from OAU to AU
9.00 - 18.00
The AU Symposium provides an opportunity for the OAU to detail the status, process and objectives of the establishment of the AU, to obtain input from a range of stakeholders, and to consolidate consensus about the road ahead. It takes place in the middle of the transition period from OAU to AU. This pre-ADF symposium will facilitate a much more coherent input into the ADF itself, by making it possible for organized and focused interventions to be made during the conference, highlighting the relevance of the AU in each of the main focus areas for the ADF.
Co-hosts: ECA and OAU
Facilitator: IAG
Participants: 60-70
3 breakout sessions in the late morning and early afternoon
Workshop on "Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) - Tools for Regional Integration"
09:00 - 17:00
Co-hosts : ECA and La Francophonie
Adoption of Report of Transport Experts
17:00 - 18:30
DAY 2, Monday 4 March 2002 - Pre-Forum Events and Opening Session
Parallel Briefings/Meetings
- Chairs, Rapporteurs, Facilitators, Resource Persons meeting for briefings
- Media briefings by ECA
- Focus Groups’ pre-conference planning meetings
Opening Session
16.00 - 18.00
Chair: Mr. K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA
Speakers: Mr. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister, Ethiopia
Mr. Amara Essy, Secretary-General, OAU
Mr. Omar Kabbaj, President, African Development Bank (ADB)
The opening session will begin with a welcome statement by the host, the Executive Secretary of the ECA. The Ethiopian Prime Minister, will make an address, followed by statements by the Secretary General of the OAU and the President of the ADB, representing the other two regional organizations.
Reception
18.00 - 20.00
DAY 3, Tuesday 5 March 2002
Plenary Session 2, The History and Prospects for Regional Integration
09.00 - 11.30
Chair: Prof. Abdoulaye Bathily, Vice-President National Assembly (Senegal)
Presenter: Dr Adebayo Adedeji, former Executive Secretary, ECA
Discussants: Mr. Nuwe Amanya-Mushega, Secretary General of East African
Cooperation
Africa has a history of projects for integration and unification, from the Pan Africanism of Nkrumah through the 1980 Abuja Treaty committing governments to an African common market to the challenges of integration in the context of 21st century globalization. In this session, the lessons to be learned from this history, and its application to current initiatives, will be presented by, one of Africa’s leading authority on this subject, who will lay out the successes and failures of regional integration from a long-term perspective, and discussants will contribute their views, based on the experience of subregional integration and the perspective of the private sector.
Plenary Session 3
Assessing Economic Integration in Africa: Launching the Annual Report on Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA)
12.00 - 13.30
Chair: Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, Executive Secretary, Global Coalition for
Africa
Presenter: Mr. Yousif Suliman, Director, RCID, ECA
Discussants: Mr. Alan Gelb, Chief Economist, Africa Region, The World Bank
Economic integration is a complex and challenging task that requires a well-developed system for analysis, assessment, measurement and monitoring. How should such an assessment mechanism be established? What is the conceptual framework to be used? This session will launch the first ARIA report. ARIA is an ECA project to analyze and monitor integration efforts in Africa, assess the effectiveness of those efforts, and provide a sound analytical basis for taking actions to promote regional coherence. A discussion on enhancing the analysis and measurement of regional integration will be led by senior officers of Africa’s subregional organizations.
Breakout Sessions Round 1
15.00 - 16.30
Seven parallel sessions organized by Focus Groups:
- Private sector
- Civil society
- Parliamentarians
- ICTs
- Infrastructure Priorities
- Human rights and the law
- Gender
Plenary Session 4
Integration in other regions: Lessons for the African Union
17.00 - 18.30
Chair: Mr. Zéphérin Diabre, Associate Administrator, UNDP
Presenters: Mr. Walter Kennes, Economist, European Commission
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Discussant: Prof. Ali El-Agraa, Professor in International Economics, Fukuoka
University, Japan
What lessons do other regions’ experience hold for Africa? In this session, speakers will review the factors that helped and impeded regional integration elsewhere in the world. The presentations will discuss the strategies for regional integration pursued elsewhere in the world, including Europe, the Americas and East Asia. Senior officials from relevant regional organizations will make presentations. This will allow for reflection on best practices, pitfalls and recommendations to suit Africa’s particular circumstances.
DAY 4, Wednesday 6 March 2002
Plenary Session 5
Physical Integration through Infrastructural Development
09.00 - 11.30
Chair: H. E. Mr. Ibrahim El-Dimeery, Minister of Transport, Egypt
Presenters: ADB Representative
Mr. Kenneth Button, George Mason University
Discussants: Mr. Alhaji B. Mohamed Tukur, Leading African entrepreneur
Ms. Maryvonne Plessis-Fraissard, Transport Sector,
Manager for Africa, The World Bank
What is the infrastructural agenda for accelerating integration? Upgrading transport, telecommunications, and energy infrastructure are recognized as essential contributors to the process of economic development and poverty reduction. This session will be an opportunity for infrastructural initiatives in key sectors to be showcased and discussed.
Plenary Session 6
Economic Policies for Accelerating Regional Integration
12.00 - 13.30
Chair: Ms. Mohohlo, Governor, Central Bank, Botswana
Presenters: Mr. Konan Bany, Governor, BCEAO
Mr. Gondwe, Director, Africa Department, IMF
Discussant: Mr. Delphin Rwegasira, Executive Director, AERC
Economic and monetary union is one of the aims of the African Union. Current African development initiatives envision regional integration in the context of effective macroeconomic management and corporate governance, and enhanced partnership between Africa’s best-performers and international development partners. This entails promoting increased regional trade and convergence of monetary policies. Some subregions have already taken significant steps in this direction. This session will include a comprehensive presentation of these issues.
Breakout Sessions Round 2
15.00 - 16.30
Six parallel sessions:
- Fiscal and monetary policies
- Trade policies
- HIV/AIDS
- Higher education and research
- Assuring government revenues
- Promoting regional private sector investment
Plenary Session 7
Peace and Security Architecture
17.00 - 18.30
Chair: Mr. Kemal Morjani, Assistant High Commissioner, UNHCR
Presenter: Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, former Secretary General of the OAU
Discussants: Mr. Lansana Kouyate, former Executive Seceratry of ECOWAS
Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, Special Adviser for Africa to the
UN Secretary General
Peace and security are absolute prerequisites for regional integration. There are many complex issues to be addressed. Are some of Africa’s conflicts—including those in the Great Lakes and the Horn—partly attributable to the absence of effective structures for regional peace and security? Can we identify a firm or evolving consensus on a doctrine to guide Africa’s peace and security efforts? Is the current system workable, whereby peace-related efforts are mostly undertaken at a subregional level? How are the AU and CSSDCA to work together in this area with an effective division of labour? How are they to relate to subregional organizations? What are the roles for Africa’s most powerful states? How should the economic dimensions of conflict be addressed? What should be the modalities for post-conflict reconstruction?
Conference of Ministers of Transport
10.30 - 19.00
Focus Groups Caucus
19.00 - 20.00
DAY 5, Thursday 7 March 2002
Plenary Session 8
Building an Effective African Union
9:00 - 11:30
Chair: Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Harvard Institute for International Development
Presenter: Mr. Said Djinnit, OAU Assistant Secreraty General for Political Affairs
Discussants: Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Senior Adviser, Modern African Fund
Managers
Mr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Secretary General, PanAfrican
Movement
Establishing the African Union is an ambitious undertaking which will make considerable demands on the existing institutional infrastructure and finance. The Constitutive Act of the AU specifies a range of institutions, but not an action plan for prioritizing their establishment and functioning. A comprehensive presentation will focus on the AU vision, the functional architecture of the AU, the building of capacities in the AU and subregional organizations, and the financing of the AU Commission.
Breakout Sessions Round 3
12.00 - 13.30
Six parallel sessions:
- Building institutional capacities for integration
- Creating political backing for integration
- Protecting small countries
- The regional rule of law and compliance with agreements
- Roles for subregional organizations, supra-regional organizations and the UN in the African Union
- Citizenship
Parallel Sessions:
15.00 - 16.30
- Rapporteurs’ meeting to prepare final reports
- Focus Groups’ meeting to prepare recommendations for final declaration, and questions for Heads of State forum
- Committee on Regional Cooperation and Integration
Free for other participants
Plenary Session 9
Heads of State Presentations
17.00 - 18.30
Chair: Amare Essy, Secretary General, OAU
Presenters: Heads of State and Government
This session will be an opportunity for the invited Heads of State and Government to present their vision and plans for regional economic and political integration.
Parallel Closed Session: Priorities for Implementation
17.00 - 18.30
Co-chairs: Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary, ECA
Amb. Said Djinnit, Assistant Secretary General, OAU
Participants: Representatives of stakeholder Focus Groups, regional and subregional
organizations, governments, specialists
This will be a closed session in which select representatives of the Focus Groups, regional organizations, RECs, selected governments and experts will discuss the key findings from the Forum, and prepare and approve a final declaration for ADF III. This session will be conducted in parallel with Plenary Session 9.
DAY 6, Friday 8 March 2002
Heads of States Forum
10.00 - 13.00
Chair: K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA
Panels: Heads of State and Government
Representatives of six stakeholder Focus Groups
In this plenary, representatives of stakeholder focus groups will have the opportunity to ask questions of the Heads of State and Government on their views on how integration should proceed in Africa. The session will help better understand the political concerns about integration and the ways in which stakeholders and governments can be engaged in supporting the process of regional integration.
Closing Session
The Way Forward
15.00 - 18.00
Co-chairs: K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary, ECA
Amare Essy, Secretary General, OAU
Speakers: Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, Literature
Prof. Robert Mundell, Nobel Laureate, Economics
The final session will consist of a presentation of the final declaration and plan of action from ADF III, and discussion of recommendations for the June 2002 Summit to inaugurate the African Union in Pretoria, South Africa.
There will be a video address by H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations.