African Union Swallows Nepad At Kampala Meeting

African leaders are arriving in Kampala, for an African Union (AU) summit held in the shadow of this month’s bloody attacks in the Ugandan capital.

The 53-member pan-African body is set to make key decisions, including taking the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) under its wing.

The full summit does not start till Sunday but a meeting of a select group of leaders on the proposed integration of Nepad into the AU got underway Saturday.

The mini-summit of the Nepad Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee was chaired by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and attended by the presidents of Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Malawi, Congo-Brazzaville and Zambia.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed it on economic development and partnerships, while Canadian State Minister for Foreign Affairs Peter Kent reported on the outcome of the G8 and G20 summits that took place in June in Canada.

Nepad’s integration is one of the six key items on the agenda of the summit, which has been overshadowed by Somalia and security issues.

“It is very important in the sense that in the past there has been a misconception that Nepad has been undertaking activities that have also been undertaken by the African Union commission,” says Maxwell Mkwezalamba, the African Union Commissioner for Economic Affairs.

The decision of Saturday’s meeting will be presented to the full summit for endorsement. From then on Nepad, which is currently based in South Africa, will cease to exist independently and become an African Union entity.

Billie O’kadameri | 26 July 2010|Radio France Internationale (Paris)|