Committee on Development

Windhoek Dialogue

Democracy in Africa and the Windhoek Dialogue: an initiative of the EPP-ED Group, supported by the Robert Schuman and the Konrad Adenauer Foundations

The Windhoek Dialogue is the EPP-ED Group's African policy initiative, launched in March 1996, in Windhoek, the Capital of Namibia, with five African parties coming from anglophone countries in Southern and East Africa.

The idea behind the Windhoek Dialogue was to develop a network for co-operation, not only between the EPP-ED Group and its African partners, but also among the African political parties themselves. Thus to create a forum where like-minded African parties and Members of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament could meet and exchange ideas and experiences on democratic development and co-operation.

At the first meeting of the Windhoek Dialogue, in Windhoek, in March 1996, the EPP-ED Group members and their African counter-parts adopted the First Windhoek Declaration, whereby the parties involved drew up a charter which defined their common values and principles and which all future partners should adhere to.

These include:

• respect for human dignity, human rights and freedoms;
• separation of powers and the rule of law;
• multiparty-democracy and good governance with regular free and fair elections;
• a political system based on principles such as subsidiarity, local and regional autonomy;
• solidarity and responsibility;
• market-economy with a social and environmental correction.

The second meeting of the Windhoek Dialogue took place in Brussels in September 1996; the third in Luxembourg in July 1997; the fourth in Windhoek in October 1998; the fifth in Brussels in November 2002 and the sixth in Windhoek in October 2003.

In a landmark meeting in the context of the 4th Windhoek Dialogue that took place in Windhoek in October 1998, 19 political parties coming from 18 African countries (anglophone, francophone and lusophone), all committed to the common values and principles of the Windhoek Dialogue, decided to create the Union of African Parties for Democracy and Development (UAPDD), and agreed unanimously on a Basic Programme and a Constitution.

The UAPDD today brings together more than 25 political parties from 24 African countries.

Through the Windhoek Dialogue and the facilitation and support of the UAPDD structures and meetings, the EPP-ED Group, with the help of the Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer Foundations, continues to channel its contribution to the good governance and democratisation process in Africa.