Eleven African countries signed an agreement Friday calling for $2 billion (11,4 mia. d. kr.) over five years to build roads and restore basic services as a way to help central Africa emerge from a cycle of war and dictatorship.
The agreement – officially called the Pact on Stability, Security and Development in the Great Lakes Region – involves mandatory contributions toward a reconstruction and development fund that the African Development Bank will manage.
The agreement was signed at last week’s International Conference on the Great Lakes Region by Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The package will target economic development and regional integration, internally displaced people and social services programs. Other targets are security, democracy and good governance programs.
The pact which is a culmination of more than four years of regional negotiations, also calls on member states to criminalize any act of aggression or subversion against other states by individuals or groups operating in their respective states.
The package of measures which promises to enhance the lives of the forcibly displaced, including a regional protocol on protection and assistance for internally displaced, is the first legally binding regional instrument specifically dealing with IDPs anywhere in the world.
Several delegates said Friday that the treaty was a positive step, but would be difficult to implement and a great challenge.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
