Selling NEPAD: A United Nations Odyssey

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Selling NEPAD A United Nations Odyssey
A Presentation at the NEPAD Communications
Cluster Workshop Accra, Ghana, 12-14 April 2007

• YINKA ADEYEMI
• Communications Officer
• Advocacy/Communications Focal Point for ECA NEPAD
  Support

UNECA
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Outline

• The Key Challenge
• How the Odyssey began
• What Followed
• Where we are now
• What we do next (The Old Man of Nepadville)

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The Challenge

• If NEPAD were a software and its initiators were
  Bill Gates and Steve Job, we would not need an
  elaborate strategy to sell it.
• But it is not!

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So what is it? Do we even really know?

• NEPAD has variously been called
• A Programme
• An Initiative
• A Policy Framework
• A Concept
• An Idea
• A Philosophy

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Here is what we know definitely

• NEPAD is an initiative of governments!
• Governments/Politicians are not the most trusted
  (Ref Joseph Nye et al, Why People Dont Trust
  Government.
• We face a crisis of categorization.
• NEPAD faces the burden of a stepchild! (Where is
  the father? Who is the father?)

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• As we proceed, let us keep these realities in
  mind

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How the UN Odyssey began

• 2004 The first UN draft Advocacy and
  Communication Strategy in support of NEPAD was
  prepared by OSAA.
• The document was prepared pursuant to a GA
  Resolution and an SG Bulletin (SGB/6/2003) which
  mandate OSAA to coordinate global advocacy in
  support of NEPAD and act as its focal point
  within the UN.

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The 2004 Strategy

• Focus was on
• Events
• Publications and
• Forums
• aimed at advocating NEPAD position and work
• (In 2004 what was the position? What was the
  work?)

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The rationale for the 2004 Strategy

• Two arguments
• The need for a common strategy (which would yield
  a common message)
• The need for a communications campaign which
  would clarify the following perceptions or
  mis-perceptions

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The Perceptions/Misperceptions

• That NEPAD is a top-down programme of African
  leaders initiated to appease Western donors.
• That NEPAD, essentially APRM.
• That NEPAD buzzes only during meetings of HSGIC.
• That NEPAD is a mere programme of the five
  initiating countries
• That NEPAD is a temporary sensation that will go
  the way of its predecessors ---e.g. Lagos Plan of
  Action

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Therefore, the 2004 Strategy aimed

• Objectives
• To create awareness for and ownership around the
  concept and idea of NEPAD (Minimalist?)
• To build credibility for NEPAD, its promoters and
  its projects. (Can we? Can NEPAD stand alone?
  Should it inherit the burden/goodwill of its
  promoters?)
• To create a perception of leadership capacity of
  Africans (Do they have it or not?)
• Mobilize target audience for action.

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Essentially, the 2004 Strategy

• Aims to achieve these objectives through series
  of activities and events.
• It hopes that these activities and events would
  deliver a host of outcomes, including

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The expected outcomes

• Understanding among Africans, that they can
  address and confront the continents
  developmental problems
• Creating the knowledge that NEPAD is the
  vehicles designed to achieve that lofty goal.
• Acceptance of NEPAD as an African initiative
  that takes active consideration of peculiar
  African realities.

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Expected outcomes, contd.

• The existence of a general perception of dominant
  credibility for NEPAD programmes and the process
  of their implementation.
• Sustained interests in and outside Africa for the
  continued existence of NEPAD
• Increased awareness, credibility and acceptance
  by Africans and their partners of the NEPAD
  objectives and programmes.

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Expected Outcomes contd.

• Strengthened leadership potential and political
  support for NEPAD in Africa and therefore a
  legitimization of NEPAD in the continent.
• Increased sustained funding for NEPAD from
  in-country sources and donors
• Increased consensus between government and civil
  society on the implementation of NEPAD
• Enhanced participation of the private sector in
  support of implementation of NEPAD
• Increased and accelerated participation of
  African women in developmental affairs and the
  persistent promotion of the idea of their
  empowerment.

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Have we achieved all these?

• No!
• They were too weak and ambiguous (E.g. Do we
  promote women empowerment or the idea of women
  empowerment? What does general perception of
  dominant credibility mean?
• But help is on the way

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Where we are

• There is no need to panic or throw the baby away
  with the bathwater!
• To operationalize the 2004 Strategy, we have
  sharpened its objectives in a leaner, more
  focused document and
• Segmented its target audiences into Public
  Sector, Private Sector, Civil Society and Others.

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We have also

• Sharpened the message criteria (No slogans,
  please!)
• Identified efficient tools and instruments and
• Prepared the ground for an immediate take-off of
  implementation.
• (See NEPAD Advocacy and Communications Project,
  A Proposal by ECA)

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Where we go next

• In 2005, we mooted the idea of joint programming
  beginning with the training of NEPAD
  Correspondents across Africa.
• Let us move forward in that spirit Identify what
  we can do together figure out how to pay for it
  and implement!

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Its really up to us

• Let me tell you a story about an old man who
  lives in a village called NEPADVILLE

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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE
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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE

• He was very wise and knew how to improve his
  villageeradicate poverty and achieve all the
  MDGs!

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• But thenThere were a few mischievous children

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• Who wanted to prove that the old man was as
  foolish as the rest of us.

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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE

• They approached the old man with a bird in their
  hands and asked

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• Old man, this bird in our hands Is it dead or
  alive?,

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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE

• If the Old man said it was dead they would let
  it fly
• If he said it was alive they would squash it to
  death.
• Either way, the old man was going to lose.

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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE

• The Old Man took one look at the children and
  said

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The Wise Old Man of NEPADVILLE

• Children,
• It is in your hands!

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Let the bird fly.or
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Squash it to death!
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At the end of it all.

• Its in our hands. NEPAD is in our hands.
• Lets let it fly!

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• Thanks for your attention.
• Feedback
• ecanepad_at_uneca.org