1:2. CSSDCA: Towards Re-launching the Process                                                                              Go Top

Algiers, July 1999: At the July,1999 OAU Summit in Algiers, Algeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria urged his colleagues to re-focus on the Kampala Document and he offered to initiate the process that would ultimately culminate in its re-launch. A resolution was thus adopted designating the year 2000 as the Year of Peace and Security in Africa. The Summit also agreed accordingly, to re-introduce the Kampala Document as the main guiding framework for the African development process. The Africa Leadership Forum was represented at this meeting and it distributed published materials on the CSSDCA, including the Kampala Document, to all the delegates.                                          

Abuja, August 1999: As a follow-up to the decision of the Algiers Summit on the CSSDCA, a one-day Consultative Meeting was convened in Abuja Nigeria on August 28, 1999 by the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister and chaired by H.E President Olusegun Obasanjo. In attendance at that meeting were former Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy ministers from Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Togo, Mozambique, Egypt, Sudan and Senegal as well as the representatives of the Secretary-General of the OAU and the Executive Committee members of ALF. After exhaustive discussion, this consultative meeting, among other things, constituted the CSSDCA Steering Committee and mandated the committee to initiate the process that would further advance the CSSDCA process, mobilise support for its launching and look into the legal and technical issues involved. ALF was mandated to serve as the main technical and logistical organisation for the Steering Committee.                           

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Sirte, September 1999: The Fourth Extra-Ordinary Summit Meeting of Heads of States and Government held in Sirte, Libya Arab Jamahiriya in September 1999 provided another opportunity for futher advancing the cause of the CSSDCA. At that Summit, a resolution was adopted requesting the OAU Secretariat to convene a Ministerial Conference on CSSDCA as soon as possible. At this point and by this declaration, the CSSDCA became an OAU affair, with the active technical backing of the ALF. Following the Algiers and the Sirte Declarations and in response to demands and request of the Steering Committee, ALF revised the Kampala Document.

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New York, September 1999: The New York meeting of the Steering Committee was essentially convened to concretise the resolution of the Sirte Extra-ordinary Summit. The meeting agreed mainly that a meeting of the OAU Council of Ministers would be convened to exclusively discuss CSSDCA before the Council of Ministers Meeting fixed for February 2000. It was also projected that the Meeting of the OAU Central Organ fixed for October 1, 1999 would give the necessary legal backing to the Steering Committee. This Meeting also agreed that ALF would undertake the translation of the Revised Kampala Document into the four working languages of the OAU: English, French, Arabic and Portuguese languages.

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Addis Ababa, October 1999: The 59^th Session of the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Mediation and Resolution, held on October 1, 1999, in compliance with the New York Meeting, endorsed the establishment and composition of the Steering Committee and the appointment of Nigeria as its Chairman. It was also agreed at that meeting that the Secretary-General of the OAU provide the necessary support to facilitate and enhance the work of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee was also mandated to keep the Central organ informed of its activities and submit a progress report to the Council of Ministers Meeting in February 2000.

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Arusha, December 1999: The Steering Committee Meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, was also attended by the Secretariat of the OAU led by the Secretary-General, Salim Ahmed Salim, the Africa Leadership Forum and the Economic Commission for Africa. The meeting commended the Africa Leadership Forum for having revised the Kampala Document and making it available in all the working languages of the OAU. It also noted with satisfaction the desire of the ALF to continue to be part of the driving force for the process despite of its appropriation by the OAU. The ministers also emphasised the need to maintain the African character of the initiatives as well as the need to locate the process squarely within the agenda evolved by the OAU since 1991, with a view to invigorating it. In this regard, the meeting recalled the pertinent decisions that have been adopted by the OAU, such as the 1990 Declaration, the 1991 Abuja Treaty, the 1993 Cairo Declaration establishing the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, and other relevant decisions. The meeting also decided to establish a Group of Experts from member states of the Steering Committee, open to participation by other OAU Member States, with a view to preparing a working Document for the envisaged Ministerial Conference on the CSSDCA. Another significant achievement of the Arusha Meeting was the adoption of a definite time-table and work plan that will culminate in the submission of a final report and the re-launching of the process by the 36^th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Lome, Togo in July 2000.

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Addis Ababa, January 2000: From January 8^th to 10^th, a preparatory meeting of the Group of Experts was held at the OAU Secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting was called primarily to brainstorm on the agenda, structures and modalities of the operations of the Group’s substantive meeting scheduled for February 2000. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Africa Leadership Forum, the Economic Commission for Africa and the Organisation of African Unity. It was also decided at this meeting that there is an urgent need to explore the modalities for providing opportunities for the Civil Society Organisation in implementing the CSSDCA process as a follow up activity of the Group of Experts.

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Addis Ababa, February: The Group of Experts Meeting held also at the OAU Secretariat comprised of the members of the Steering Committee, some other OAU members, representatives of ALF and ECA. Principally, examined the Kampala Document more closely and eventually agreed to revise further and rewrite some aspects of the Kampala Document

Pretoria, February 2000: The Steering Committee Meeting held in Pretoria, South Africa, reviewed the report of the Group of Experts and called for a revision of the document.

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Lome, April 2000: Following the decision of the Group of Experts Meeting in Addis Ababa in January of 2000, the Africa Leadership Forum convened a meeting of Civil Society Organisations from 20 African countries in Lome, Togo between 19-19^th April. The meeting discussed the proposals on CSSDCA with a view to increasing the role of the civil society in the process towards and beyond the Ministerial Conference in Abuja in May. Consequently, the meeting recommended among other things that the civil society should be brought into playing a central role in further developing the CSSDCA Document and the organisation of the conference. It also suggested that in addition to other issues contained in the Document, there should also be a Calabash focussed mainly on gender. The meeting also suggested that a systematic campaign be launched and undertaken by all African civil society organisations and other concerned parties in raising awareness on the process; that the Ministerial Meeting takes into consideration the views of the civil society in the formulation of the Final Document, which is to be submitted to the Heads of State Summit in Lome in July; and that a small, well funded secretariat be set up to implement the CSSDCA. Participants also called on the United Nations to support the future implementation of the CSSDCA process.

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Abuja, May 2000: Between 8^th and 9^th of May, OAU Council of Ministers met in Abuja on the CSSDCA. The main purpose of the meeting was to prepare a final document for the 36^th Heads of State and Government Summit in Lome, Togo. At the end of the meeting, the Ministers agreed on the following implementation mechanism for the CSSDCA:

That a Standing Conference be established that should meet every two years during the OAU Summit, and provisions should be made for African Parliamentarians to make their contributions to the Conference through the Pan-African Parliament, while representatives of the civil society may forward their views and recommendations to the standing Conference through the OAU General Secretariat.

 That a Ministerial Meeting be convened every two years to prepare for the summit and senior officials of the OAU member states to monitor the implementation of the CSSDCA decisions, in-between sessions of the Standing Conference. To this end, it was requested that the OAU Secretary General to work out the modalities for realising this objective

That the CSSDCA be incorporated into the principles and guidelines in national institutions that would have responsibility for helping in the monitoring the implementations of the CSSCA activities

That the Secretary-General be entrusted with the task of initiating internal administrative arrangements for designating, within the OAU Secretariat, a Unit to co-ordinate the CSSDCA activities.

That detailed discussions be undertaken on the various calabashes inorder to operationalise the CSSDCA process. In this regard, the Secretary General is requested to undertake consultations to determine modalities for convening the meetings on the calabashes.

That the progress report of the Secretary General deriving from these meetings and discussions after considering the outcome of consultations to be undertaken by the Secretary-General, during the Ministerial Summit in Sirte, Libya in 2001 and also submit the conclusions of the discussions of the various calabashes to the summit of the year 2002.

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Lome, Togo, July 2000: At the 36^th summit of African Heads of State and Government in Lome in July, the summit listened to report of the Council of Ministers Meeting in Abuja in May and commended the efforts of the Steering Committee and the Ministers in driving the process thus far. They then proceeded to adopt the recommendations of the Ministers as a solemn declaration without any amendment, thereby re-affirming their commitment to the process. 

At the Council Meeting in Lome, two countries, Libya and Lesotho offered to host the negotiations on two of the four calabashes. There will be five negotiation meetings on the process before the final launching. Four will be on the four separate calabashes and the final meeting will be to harmonise views and agreements proceeding from the previous meetings

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Post-Lome Activities:

As reflected in this report, the Africa Leadership Forum, since 1991, has pursued a strategy aimed at building a wider constituency for the CSSDCA outside of the OAU and formal structures of government, namely among organisations and individuals within the civil society in Africa, while at the same time demonstrating a preparedness and capacity to work closely with such formal structures at the national, regional and international level in advancing the cause of the process. This was reflected in its partnership activities and technical support efforts for the OAU and the ECA in driving the activities leading to the 36^th Summit of the OAU Heads of States and Government in Lome, Togo, consequent upon the adoption of the recommendations of the Ministerial Conference in Abuja in May.

Accordingly, ALF has over the past nine years remained the main promoter and proponent of the process. In this regard, ALF has also in the process created forums for frank and open discussions of some of the critical obstacles and issues of good governance, democratisation and stabilisation of the continent as well as developing modalities, strategies and mechanism for deepening and advancing the support for the process that is believed will provide an articulate framework for combating those obstacles.

In furtherance to these efforts, ALF hopes to continue to be at the forefront of the efforts on the process by continuing to give the necessary technical backstopping to the OAU. ALF will also step up its efforts in opening a wider space for the civil society in the process. In this regard, ALF hopes to hold parallel meetings of African NGOs alongside the negotiations that would be going on within the OAU framework. This is to ensure that whatever emerges eventually will be people oriented and the people of Africa will be the primary beneficiaries. To this effect, ALF will set up lobby groups to that will network within the OAU to concretely get the civil society viewpoints into focus and considerations.>>>continue