799 (XXX). Promoting human development in Africa

The Conference of ministers,

            Aware of the primacy of the human being in the development process and of the need to focus the development endeavours of African countries on human development,

            Emphasizing the importance of the mobilization and development of human resources in Africa as a crucial factor in promoting sustained and increasingly self-reliant socio-economic development,

            Cognizant of the increasing recognition of the imperative to set, and strive to achieve, human development goals in the development process,

            Aware of the commitments made to the cause of social and human development by the jomtien World Conference on Education and Development, the Cairo World Conference on Population and Development, the New York World Summit for Children and the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development and the need for their vigorous implementation in Africa,

            Recalling the Commission's stance on human development as expressed in such landmark regional frameworks as the Lagos Plan of Action, the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development (UN-PAAERD), the Khartoum Declaration, the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment programmes for Socio-Economic Recovery and Transformation (AAF-SAP), the African Charter for Popular Participation in development and Transformation, the Dakar/Ngor Declaration on Population, Family and Sustainable Development, the African Common Position on Human and Social Development in Africa and the African Platform for Action:  African Common Position for the Advancement of Women,

            Deeply concerned over the persistently deplorable human development situation prevailing on the continent,

            Noting with appreciation the collaboration of the agencies of the United Nations, particularly the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health Organization in the preparation of the maiden report,

            1.         Commends the secretariat of the Economic Commission for Africa for its initiative in launching the series of reports on human development in Africa;

            2.         Urges member States to support fully this initiative and to use these reports, at this initial stage, as instruments for monitoring human development indicators and to participate in future within the framework of the Commission in perfecting these instruments both from the theoretical and practical points of view, taking into account the specific features of Africa;

            3.         Calls upon the United Nations agencies and the international community at large to cooperate technically, materially and financially, with the Commission in the preparation of this report;

            4.         Requests the Executive Secretary of the Commission and Africa's development partners to make use of this report as a framework to:

            (a)        Promote the cause of human development in Africa; and

            (b)        Monitor progress in the attainment to the regional targets set and the fulfillment of regional commitments made in respect of human development in fora such as the World Conference on Education for All, the World Summit for Children, the World Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development as well as within the framework of the African Common Position on Human and Social Development in Africa;

            5.         Further requests the Executive Secretary of the Commission to submit a report every two years to the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Human Development and its Ministerial Follow-up Committee of Fifteen.

                                                                                                                                          296th meeting,

                                                                                                                                             3 May 1995.