Investigating NEPAD's Development Assumptions

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) proposes a new strategy to bring about the development of the African continent. In order to assess NEPAD, it is necessary to reveal what NEPAD takes development to be. This article suggests that development, however it is understood, includes three aspects: a characterisation of the current situation which shows this situation to be undesirable, the envisaging of a desirable future, and the positing of a strategy that should be followed in order to bring about the desirable future. The article assesses NEPAD by examining the assumptions it makes with regard to these three aspects of development; and through such an examination reveals NEPAD to be an ambiguous and unimaginative project. While Africans thus have reason to feel discouraged by the emergence of NEPAD, the critical responses to NEPAD made by African academics and civil society groups are encouraging. These responses give rise to the hope that the African continent may yet see the emergence of alternative visions of a better future, and alternative paths to realise such visions.