Johannesburg: NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, calls for massive investment in the continent as African countries pledge to follow global standards of Democracy.

African leaders attending the G8 meeting of highly industrialised countries in Kananaskis, Canada, next week will be seeking their commitment to it.

The plan, drawn up by several Heads of State and endorsed by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), has won wide support from government and business leaders as an initiative proposed by Africans themselves.

Goals include an average growth rate of more than seven per cent a year for the next 15 years and compliance with international targets on poverty reduction, health, education, sustainable development and the empowerment of women.

Democracy in member countries will be monitored by an African Parliament to be set up by the African Union, which is to replace the OAU at a summit in South Africa in July.

"Africa undertakes to respect the global standards of Democracy, the core components of which include political pluralism, allowing for the existence of several political parties and workers' unions, and fair, open and democratic elections ... ," according to a detailed description of the plan drawn up during its adoption in Abuja in October 2001.

A task force drawn from Ministries of Finance and Central banks will review economic and corporate practices and recommend codes of good conduct.

Projects earmarked as NEPAD schemes will centre on regional development and economic integration.

"The new long-term vision will require massive, heavy investment to bridge existing gaps," the document says.

Projects already identified include building of new airports in Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal, construction of a rail link between Ivory Coast and Liberia, extension of several ports, and extensive work on roads.

The plan seeks to bridge the digital divide, doubling the density of telephone lines to two per 100 people by 2005, achieving e-readiness for all countries in Africa, and training youth in information and communications technologies.

It also aims to increase access to reliable and affordable energy from 10 to 35 per cent or more within 20 years, in part by integrating transmission grids and gas pipelines.

Transport objectives include reducing delays in cross-border movement of people, goods and services. Customs and immigration task teams will be set up to harmonise border crossing and visa procedures.

Improving Africa's run-down roads, railway lines and bridges is a major NEPAD goal.

The plan will also seek to harness powerful African rivers such as the Nile and the Congo to provide water for people and irrigation.

Other objectives include reversing the brain drain and bridging an education gap between Africa and the developed world.

The Secretariat plans to establish "a reliable data-base on the brain drain" to determine the magnitude of the problem and encourage skilled Africans living abroad to either return home or use their expertise to aid NEPAD projects.

Meanwhile, Southern Africa is facing widespread famine, with eight million people at risk now, a figure expected to jump to 13 million by year-end.

An "urgent need" is to improve agricultural production to provide food security, the document says.

"Bilateral donors and multilateral institutions have paid too little attention to the agricultural sector and rural development, where more than 70 per cent of the poor people in Africa reside," it adds, noting that World Bank credits to agriculture dropped from 39 per cent of its lending portfolio in 1978 to seven per cent in 2000.

NEPAD calls for "a new relationship" with industrialised countries as Africans take responsibility for their continent's destiny.