The launch of the African Union had created an opportunity to build a "solid partnership" across the continent, to promote peace and combat poverty and AIDS, the OAU secretary general said here Monday.
Salim Ahmed Salim, speaking at the opening of a summit that brings together for the first time the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and African civil society, said the African Union marked a "new era" for the continent.
The 53-nation continental body came into being on May 26 and is due within about a year to replace the OAU, founded in 1963.
The pan-African body is loosely based on the European Union, and is due eventually to consist of an executive, a central bank, a monetary fund, a parliament and a court of justice.
It is the brainchild of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, but the countries which ratified the project after a succession of summits have considerably watered down his vision of a United States of Africa.
"African civil society constitutes enormous untapped assets," Salim said in an address to some 300 delegates, among them Ethiopian government officials, diplomats, and representatives from international agencies.
The founding document of the African Union, he said, called for a "constructive partnership" between member states and civil society.
This, he said, should result in the creation of a "real bulwark against exclusion and discrimination, two breeding grounds for social unrest and political instability."
The conference, being financed by the governments of Canada and Spain and the United Nations Development Programme, is due to close on Friday with the adoption of a number of recommendations to be drafted during the week. |
