ABUJA, Nov 3 (AFP) - African leaders agreed Sunday a deal to keep an eye on
each other's progress towards just, accountable and open government,
nailing down a key plank in a widely praised continent-wide development
plan.
   A tired-looking President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria emerged from a
six-hour summit meeting to announce that "peer review", part of the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) plan, was on track.
   He said 12 of the 17 countries represented at the Abuja summit had
signed a declaration of intent to abide by peer review, including President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who left the venue before the press
conference.
   On Thursday, Mbeki had raised fears for the success of the summit by
appearing to drop his support for the peer review mechanism, but on Sunday
he seems to have backed down in the face of pressure from his fellow
leaders.
   "It's a successful meeting," Obasanjo told reporters, flanked by some of
the heads of state and government and senior officials who attended the
summit.
   "We spent a lot of time on the issue of the African Peer Review
Mechanism," he said, apologising for the three hour delay before the
announcement.
   "Not only did we spend an awful lot of useful time on it, we also had a
declaration of intent," he added, in an apparent hint that hard
negotiations lay behind the deal.
   Delegates told reporters after the conference that five nations had not
signed the declaration on intent, but insisted this was purely for
technical or procedural reasons rather than out of opposition to the plan.
   President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, for example, had had to leave the
meeting before the document had been drawn up in order to deal with issues
linked to his mediating role in the Ivory Coast conflict, delegates said.
   The countries that support the deal will meet again in February to
finalise the legal framework surrounding peer review, Obasanjo said.
   NEPAD was drawn up by Obasanjo, Mbeki, Wade and President Abdulaziz
Bouteflika of Algeria -- who was also present -- in October 2001 as
Africa's homegrown answer to the many development plans foisted on it over
the years.
   In addition to the usual talk of democratisation, accountability,
inward  investment, infrastructure development and poverty eradication, the
leaders promised to live up to agreed standards of good administration.
   Impressed, the international community raced to embrace the plan and
reward its sentiments with promises of development aid and debt relief,
tied, of course, to NEPAD's promised revolution in African government.
   Peer review, under which panels of eminent statesmen and economists will
be mandated by governments to monitor each other's progress, is a key
element in Africa proving it can oversee its own affairs.
   In his opening address to the summit Obasanjo said: "This system of
voluntary self-assessment of mutually agreed codes and standards is
designed to foster good governance as the bedrock of sustainable
development."
   "Peer review must be Africa-owned, Africa-led and Africa-managed. It is
our expectation that once this mechanism is put in place, Africa will have
taken a great step towards controlling its own destiny," he added.
   That vision was approved on Sunday by Bouteflika, Mbeki, Rwanda's
President Paul Kagame, Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano, Ethiopia's
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ghana's Vice President Aliu Mahaba and Gabon's
Vice Prime Minister Ondo Methogo.
   Senior representatives from Mali, Mauritius, Egypt and the Republic of
Congo also signed. Senegal's Wade, Botswana's President Festus Mogae and
representatives of Angola, Tunisia and Cameroon did not.

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