New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

At the 31st Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Union Heads of State and Government in Nouakchott, Mauritania, June 2018, a decision was taken to transform the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency into the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD). The establishment of AUDA-NEPAD is part of the global reforms geared at improving the Union’s impact and operational efficiency.

The mandate of AUDA-NEPAD is to: a) Coordinate and Execute priority regional and continental projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063; and b) Strengthen capacity of African Union Member States and regional bodies, advance knowledge-based advisory support, undertake the full range of resource mobilisation and serve as the continent’s technical interface with all Africa’s development stakeholders and development partners.

The Agency implements its mandate through six broad thematic areas, namely:

1. a) Economic integration;
2. b) Industrialisation;
3. c) Environmental Sustainability;
4. d) Technology, Innovation and Digitisation;
5. e) Knowledge Management; and
6. f) Human Capital and Institutions Development.

The new AUDA-NEPAD mandate gives the organisation a wider role in terms of providing knowledge-based advisory support to AU Member States in the pursuit of their national development priorities. The core functions of the Agency are to:

• Incubate innovative programmes in various fields, including technology, research and development, knowledge management, and data analytics;
• Provide technical and implementation support to RECs and Member States in the development and execution of priority projects and programmes;
• Assist Member States and RECs to strengthen capacity in key areas such as food and nutrition, energy, water, infrastructure, information and communication technology and digital economy, natural resource governance, climate change and institutional and human capital development and innovation;
• Provide advisory support in the setting up and application of norms and standards in thematic priorities of the AU to accelerate regional integration;
• Provide technical backstopping to the AU in implementing policy recommendations at the continental, regional and national levels;
• Monitor and assess Africa’s development trends and progress with the view to achieve key continental and global goals for the purpose of technical reporting;
• Undertake, apply and disseminate research on policy development support for Member States;
• Coordinate, facilitate and promote cooperation with Africa’s strategic partners and stakeholders for effective resource mobilisation;
• Coordinate and facilitate partnership with stakeholders and African academia;
• Foster the cooperation in Africa with the private sector; and
• Coordinate between AU Specialised Agencies, Organs and other institutions to create an enabling and supportive environment for the achievement of the goals and priorities of Agenda 2063.