President Cyril Ramaphosa has on Saturday, 8 February 2020, assumed the Chairship of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) – the self-assessment and monitoring tool of the continent.
Established in 2003, the APRM is a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) that serves as a platform for amongst others, sharing experiences and reinforcing best practices towards political stability, accelerated economic growth and regional and continental integration as well as sustainable development. It further seeks to foster change in underlying deficiencies in governance and socioeconomic development processes amongst member states.
As Chairperson, President Ramaphosa shall serve a term of two years from 2020 to 2022.
President Ramaphosa assumes the Chairship of the APRM at a critical time following the recent expansion of its mandate to include the monitoring of the implementation of Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development Goals.
The 32nd Summit resolved that all member reposition APRM at the centre of continental efforts to deepen democracy and good governance.
Initially established as a mutually agreed instrument to which member states could voluntarily accede, the APRM has 37 members to date.
Accepting the Chairship, President Ramaphosa echoed the goal of the Assembly to achieve universal accession to the APRM by 2023. The President further called for more members to join the mechanism in order to jointly “pursue innovations that will catalyse the positive transformation of the continent”.
The APRM carries out, in fulfilment of its mandate, four types of country reviews. The base review is undertaken once a country joins the APRM, a periodic review is carried out very four years, and member countries may also request a review outside of the mandate review.
The 29th session of the APRM held today, received for the first time targeted reviews which are reviews commissioned by the APRM and included targeted reviews on youth unemployment in the Republic of Namibia, fiscal decentralization in the Republic of Djibouti, and the contribution of tourism to the economy of Zambia.
A country review report was also tabled on the United Arab Republic of Egypt.
President Ramaphosa has encouraged countries that have undergone the review process to implement the recommendations of their reports saying they are key to achieving the much needed impact on the continent.
President Ramaphosa has thanked his immediate two past predecessors their Excellencies President Derby and President Kenyatta for the sterling role they have played in steering the APRM to even greater levels of effectiveness.
ALL AFRICA