Norway strongly believes that the time has come to commit ourselves to ensuring that concrete steps are taken towards radically improving the livelihood of the many African women , men and children who live in absolute poverty . In other words , we should be content with no less than a common understanding and commitment from all involved parties — the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and bilateral donors , as well as the various United Nations agencies — to tackle the problems of Africa by operationalizing the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s ( UN-NADAF ) , through the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa .