Africa: NEPAD Bodies to Merge Into African Union

African leaders have approved a three-year timetable for integration of the institutions of the continent's development blueprint into the governing and administrative structures of the African Union. They originally adopted the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) in 2001, but with the old Organisation of African Unity in the process of transition to the AU, the institutions set up to promote the plan have remained distinct, linked to the AU only on an ad hoc basis.