COMMISSION FOR AFRICA

BACKGROUND

The Commission for Africa was launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair on 26 February 2004. The creation of the Commission reflects the urgent need to generate effective action for Africa, and for a fresh look at how to do that. It is timely because 2005 presents a real opportunity. First, the UK will hold the presidencies of both the G8 and the EU in 2005, and will put Africa high on both agendas. Also in 2005, the UN will review progress towards the 2015 target to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will find that Africa is off track in meeting these goals.

Most of the Commissioners (nine out of 16) come from Africa. The Commission will set out to hear a wide range of African views, including from civil society and the African Diaspora, in the course of its work. This will form part of a wide consultation by the Commissioners.

The Commission will not duplicate or replace existing international processes. It will seek to support and encourage the best of existing work, in particular the African leadership shown through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Union. The Commission’s work will lead up to a final report around early April 2005, and be presented to the G8 Summit in July 2005.

The first meeting of the Commission was held in London on 4 May. The Commissioners agreed the key themes that will form the basis of their work. These include: the economy, natural resources (including agriculture, food security and environment), peace and security, governance, investing in people and culture / heritage / participation. Cross-cutting themes include HIV/AIDS, migration and gender. The report will provide an integrated analysis of all these themes.

The Commission’s website can be seen here.

Purpose of this early consultation

The natural resources, agriculture, food security, and environmental management are seen as key to growth and poverty reduction in Africa and are therefore recognised as important themes for the Commission’s work. The framework of this on-going e-forum provided an initial opportunity to feed ideas into the Commission on the key issues to be addressed and also to inform the planning of the wider consultation process. Outputs from this short consultation (17-28 May 2004) forms part of the wider Commission's consultation that will take place throughout 2004,

We invited you to contribute to shaping the framework for the Commission’s work and its future in-depth consultations, and welcomed your early and immediate thoughts on one or more of the following topics:

1. How can Africa’s environmental wealth be better understood, valued and managed for economic growth and poverty reduction?

2. How can poor people, whose livelihoods depend most upon environmental wealth, ensure access to it?

3. What are the key challenges facing agriculture in Africa today?

4. What key issues would you like the Commission to focus on concerning agriculture and natural resource management?

5. What would be your preferred means of consultation?

The Commission will also review the contributions made to the DFID Consultation on New Directions for Agriculture, in particular where reference is made to Africa.