PREAMBLE

The Member States of the Organization of African Unity;

recognizing that severe energy shortages in many African countries have constrained industrial development efforts for many years in spite of the enormous conventional energy potential as well as vast deposits of new and renewable energy resources;

realizing the fact that Africa must harness its energy resources and make them available to meet the energy needs of its peoples in order to be able to develop and provide an alternative to deforestation and use of firewood as a primary source of energy;

recalling the various Resolutions and Declarations wherein it had been stipulated that the integrated economic development of the African continent is an essential condition for the achievement of the objectives of the Organization of African Unity;

recalling further the Lagos Plan of Action adopted in 1980, the Cairo Agenda for Action adopted in 1995 and the Resolutions of the First Pan African Energy Ministers' Conferences adopted in Tunis in 1995, of the First and Second Regional Conference of African Ministers Responsible for the Development and Utilization of Mineral and Energy Resources held in Accra in 1995 and Durban in 1997, which, inter alia, advocate the need for accelerated socio-economic development in Africa, including the sustainable development and exploitation of energy resources, respectively;