The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, has challenged African countries to develop strategies which will wean off their economies from donor dependen­cy. He said that could be achieved only if they were able to adequate­ly address the weaknesses in their internal capacities in the manage­ment of their economies. Prof. Oquaye was addressing the opening session of a five-day international workshop to assess the policy. implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Accra. It is being attended by 35 partic­ipants from the Pan-African Parlia­ment (PAP), selected MPs from Ghana, staff of the NEPAD Secre­tariat and civil society representa­tives, among others. The workshop, which is being organised by the Canadian Parlia­mentary Centre, a non-governmen­tal organisation, is expected to ensure a more effective PAP, which is able to contribute to democratic governance in Africa. It would also ensure enhance­ment of PAP's capacity to monitor APRM and NEPAD implementa­tion and compliance and prepare a recommendation on the APRM and NEPAD to the 12th session of the PAP. Prof. Oquaye said implementa­tion of programmes of the priority sectors of NEPAD was key to the economic transformation of Africa and the establishment of self-sus­taining and self-reliant economies. He said it was, however, impor­tant to stress that no amount of external support could make NEPAD successful, explaining that the concept would succeed depend­ing on how African governments and leaders show commitment and zeal to implement its principles. Prof. Oquaye said that in the case of Ghana, Parliament had taken the responsibility for ensuring that the rule of law, respect for human.rights, transparency and accountability were necessary con­ditions for political, economic and corporate governance to prevail. He said that had been made pos­sible through legislation of policies which were supportive of the NEPAD initiative, explaining that the passage of the Financial Administration Act and the public sittings of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament were all in line with the objectives of NEPAD. Prof. Oquaye, added that Ghana's success story could be attributed to the government's belief in democracy, good gover­nance and acceptability to the peo­ple, making it the first country to be subjected to the Peer Review Mechanism, for which it had set up a.Local Governing Council. He identified poverty reduction as the biggest challenge of NEPAD adding that while poverty was not specific to Ghana, it was striking and alarming that it was only in Africa that poverty had increased in recent years. Prof. Oquaye called on African countries to learn from one another to avoid costly mistakes and reap the benefits of the NEPAD/APRM processes and the outcomes. For his part, Dr Francis Appiah of Ghana's APRM secretariat urged parliaments in African countries to be interested in reports on the implementation of the APRM objectives which their countries submitted to the African Union (AU). He said the NEPAD had given substance to the formation of the AU, and since achieving political independence, there was the need for African countries to be econom­ically sustainable. "Once we have gained political independence, what remains is economic independence, and it is the NEPAD which will ginger econom­ic growth on the continent only if it will be well implemented," he said. The Director of Africa Pro­grammes of the Parliamentary Cen­tre, Dr Rasheed Draman, said the workshop would also examine how best practices could be replicated in other countries in order to develop and strengthen the monitoring and evaluation framework of the vari­ous committees of the PAP. Source: Daily Graphic