Proponents of NEPAD believe that it presents an historic opportunity to end Africa's scourge of underdevelopment.
Nepad, or its successor, now needs to put pressure on recalcitrant places to submit to similar reviews and to take action.Zimbabwe is the most glaring test-case; but Mr Mbeki balks at it.
Otherwise it and Nepad will be rightly condemned as the same useless talking-shops of the bad old days.
It intends to do so partly by encouraging exports, partly by assuaging the doubts that foreign investors, donors and wealthy Africans have about the continent's stability.Earlier this month, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and several other African presidents met in Durban to set out how Nepad would reach its goals.
Through NEPAD, Africa needs to redesign its own self-image and to invent a new science-led and African culture-informed future.
It is against this background that NEPAD introduced the NEPAD city that is defined as one that is functional, economically productive, socially inclusive, environmentally sound, safe, and healthy and secure (UN-HABITAT [2010]).
More sceptical observers suggest that Nepad could be let down by its love for grand ideas, and the scope of its ambition.
Its neoliberal development programme, Nepad, is less suited to the needs of workers and peasants than the more comprehensive development strategy of the Lagos plan of action, adopted in 1980.
In China's White Paper on Africa, published in January, Beijing indicates its support for other NEPAD priorities, such as trade, investment, infrastructure development and agriculture.
A voice for the insurgents Reprints Related items Helping Africa Helping Africaa help itselfJun 30th 2005So documents like the recent report of the Commission for Africa, set up last year by Britain's Tony Blair to "take a fresh look at Africa" and how to develop it, burst with enthusiasm for the AU and Nepad.
Yet, NEPAD pays little attention to the disease in its proposals.
