Governance Perspectives Update is a monthly newsletter on the APRM, governance, democracy and accountability in Africa. It is published by the Governance and African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).
A word from the Editor
After a lengthy break due to our commitments on the APRM Monitoring Project (for more, see our Tracking the APRM in South Africa story below) I am delighted to bring you a new-look edition of Governance Perspectives Update (GPU). In order to save you valuable time, inbox space and ensure that we are able to provide you with the most useful information, the GPU has become more concise. We will still continue bringing you the most up-to-date information on the APRM and African governance, as well as updates on SAIIA’s governance publications and events. However, as you will notice from this and forthcoming editions, our focus will only be on the most relevant and important news, developments and events on the APRM and governance in Africa. These will be brought to you as short and informative summaries with optional hyperlinks, should you wish to find out more.
2011 has been a very busy year for our programme thus far. We have completed independent civil society reviews of the APRM National Programme of Action (NPoA) implementation in South Africa and Lesotho.
We also completed our revision of the Economic Governance and Management section of the APRM Questionnaire as a Technical Research Institute (TRI) for the APRM Secretariat. The questionnaire is due to be revised before the January 2012 African Union Summit at a meeting between the Secretariat and Focal Points. Finally, we have published a book called “Grappling with Governance: Perspectives on the African Peer Review Mechanism” and will launch a new book in October, entitled “African Solutions: Best Practices from the African Peer Review Mechanism.” For more information on the new book, please refer to the October edition of the GPU. As the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East have once again brought the importance of governance to the forefront, we look forward to continuing our engagement on governance and APRM matters for the remainder of this year.
I would also like to use this opportunity to bid a farewell to the former Head of SAIIA’s Governance and APRM Programme and the original creator of this newsletter, Steven Gruzd, who left the Programme to join the South African Jewish Board of Deputies on 1 July 2011. Thank you for everything, Steve – your colleagues at SAIIA and in the world of the APRM will most certainly miss you.
I hope you find our new-look GPU both informative and interesting.
Yarik Turianskyi
GPU Editor and Researcher with SAIIA’s Governance and APRM Programme.
Please send feedback, comments and content to Yarik Turianskyi.
APRM in the News
South Africa’s President and Planning Minister discuss the importance of the APRM
Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s President, stressed the importance of the APRM and its role as a multilateral channel during his state visit to Norway on 1 September 2011. He stated that: “Our key role in the African Union in facilitating infrastructure development for the continent, our role in African peacekeeping and conflict resolution, the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the African Peer Review Mechanism offer effective channels for collaboration with Norway in the development of southern Africa and the African continent.” To access the full speech, click here.
Trevor Manual, South Africa’s Planning Minister, also highlighted the APRM and the importance of streamlined reporting at a consultative seminar on the role of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures in attaining the Millennium Development Goals, held at Parliament in Cape Town, on 5 September 2011. He said: “It is fundamentally important that we are able to draw the connections from one report to the next. South Africa's MDG report to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010 raised a number of issues, good and bad, that some National Assembly Portfolio Committees have responded to. The report of our accountability to the rest of Africa, entitled the African Peer Review Mechanism report, that was prepared in the course of last year, is part of the measurement of development progress.” To access the full speech, click here.
Independent assessment criticises APRM implementation in Uganda
The recently published “Implementation of the APRM in Uganda: A Critical Evaluation” is an independent assessment of the APRM progress in Uganda since 2003, carried out by academics Samuel Bamulanzeki Tindifa and Babuuzibwa Mukasa Luutu. The report criticises the country for executive dominance, restrictions on civil society and media, and failure to address recommendations made in the Uganda APRM Country Review Report (CRR). The researchers said, “It was observed that government chooses to dismiss those recommendations that are not in the interest of its survival as misrepresentations or misinterpretations. For example, the Uganda Governance Monitoring Programme notes government’s refusal to address the issue of term limits because it is intended to promote life presidency of President Museveni.” The report also criticises the government for “promotion of Presidentialism at the expense of systems and institutions.” Follow this link for a news story on the report. To read an editorial on this issue, click here. To access the full report, click here.
APRM Publications:
Grappling with Governance: Perspectives on the African Peer Review Mechanism
Born out of the optimism at the new millennium that Africa’s time had come, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a tool designed to promote good governance on the continent, is built on the belief that the continent does not lack ideas to advance its development, but that states have struggled to live up to their principles and implement their policies. The APRM rests on the fundamental belief that good governance is a precondition for taking Africa out of its spiral of conflict, underdevelopment, poverty and increasing marginalisation in a globalised world. Looking in the rear-view mirror almost a decade after the APRM was first conceived, Grappling with Governance: Perspectives on the African Peer Review Mechanism explores how this complex process has evolved from theory to practice in a variety of contexts. Read More
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Implementing the APRM: Views from Civil Society - The Lesotho Report
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What has changed in Lesotho’s governance since it underwent the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) country review in 2009? To answer this question, the APRM Monitoring Project (AMP) – run jointly by the South African Institute of International Affairs, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Africa Governance, Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) - presents “Implementing the APRM: Views from Civil Society - The Lesotho Report.”
This report represents the views of researchers and civil society organisations that have analysed the country’s APRM profile and tracked the implementation of its National Programme of Action (NPoA). The report finds that although some progress has been achieved, results have been mixed and the APRM has not been streamlined into the country’s planning processes. For more information and to access the report, click here
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| Implementing the APRM: Views from Civil Society - The South Africa Report |
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On June 28 2011, the APRM Monitoring Project (AMP) – run jointly by SAIIA, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Africa Governance, Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) – launched its independent assessment of governance in South Africa entitled “Implementing the APRM: Views from Civil Society”.
Assembled collaboratively over the past year by several South African civil society organisations (CSOs), this report scrutinises the country’s track record in issues identified by the APRM Country Review Report in 2007. In order to do this, the report utilises a “traffic light rating system”, assigning a green light to governance issues being managed well (only elections in this case); an orange light to areas of mixed performance (the bulk of issues fall into this category); and a red light for areas with formidable policy implementation challenges and backlogs. It concludes that much still remains to be done to fulfill the country’s commitments under the APRM. Management of elections stands out as excellent among a generally mediocre performance.
The report generated considerable media attention, with over 60 articles published and 20 interviews given by project members to BBC, Talk Radio 702 and eTV News, among others. For some of the news stories on the report, click here, here and here. To access the full report, click here.
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