APRM Participating Countries Share Lessons and Best Practices

27 February 2007

In collaboration with the continental African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Secretariat and the South Africa Institute for International Affairs ( SAIIA), the APRM Support Unit of the Governance and Public Administration Division, organized a highly attended training workshop for APRM national focal points from 20 - 21 February 2007, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The workshop brought together government representatives, members of APRM National Governing Councils, and some development partners to discuss the challenges and prospects for accelerating the implementation of the APRM process within countries in the Central, Eastern and Southern African regions.

A total of 55 participants from Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia attended the workshop. Prior to this workshop, a similar workshop was held in Abuja, from 28 - 31 October 2006, f or the APRM participating countries in West Africa. Among the topics discussed were the benefits of APRM, its structures and stages, the APRM Country Self-Assessment Questionnaire, communication and media strategies, the consultation process and budget planning for APRM national survey. The workshop was an opportunity for peer learning, whereby newly acceded countries benefited from sharing and learning from the experiences of the four APRM pioneer countries: Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa.

In his opening statement to participants, UN Under-Secretary General and ECA Executive Secretary, Abdoulie Janneh, underscored the importance of peer learning among the APRM participating countries, stressing that “this workshop marks a critical milestone in the enhanced partnership among strategic partners, civil society organizations and the APRM Secretariat in our collective efforts to scale-up support to the APRM participating countries.” The Executive Director of the continental APRM Secretariat. Dr. Bernard Kouassi, meanwhile, thanked ECA and other strategic partners “for offering, once again, an opportunity to share the experiences, lessons learned and to improve on the processes of the APRM.”

Participants expressed their profound gratitude to ECA for organizing what they rated as “a fruitful and useful workshop” and commended ECA's collaboration with the APRM Secretariat and SAIIA. They also requested more support (such as workshops and direct technical assistance) for APRM participating countries. Among the many recommendations made by participants included efforts to ensure capacity building within the APRM Secretariat, institutionalization of the process at the country level, implementation of the APRM Program of Action, the establishment of a peer-learning group via e-mail networking, and the need to effectively inform and educate African governments about the peer review process. ECA will follow-up on these recommendations with a view to providing technical assistance to countries in all these areas.