AGFVI Messages, Conclusions

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AGF-VIMessages, Conclusions the Way Forward
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Main massages from Official Opening Session
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The Presidents Message

• APRM is a critical instrument for advancing
  reforms in governance and socio-economic
  development
• APRM is not an instrument for punishment or
  exclusion. It is a mechanism to identify members
  strong points, share them, and help rectify the
  weak areas

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• 3. For the APRM process to suceed, it must me
  internalised, it must be country-owned, hence, it
  should be domesticated
• 4. The APRM process should facilitate
  participating countries to learn from their own
  experiences and share such experiences with those
  that are not yet members
• 5. The greatest strength of the APRM lies in its
  ownership by Africans.

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How do we achieve this?...

• Chair of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons noted
  the following
• Centrality of Political Will in implementing APRM
• APRM as a framework for peace and security within
  NEPAD Programme
• A number of suggestions were tabled during the
  Opening session, setting the tempo of the
  deliberations

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• The UNDP Regional Director for Africa recognised
• Importance of benchmarking good governance to
  shared African and international norms and
  standards
• Importance of aligning APRM instruments to
  country specificities
• Need to build country- and continental-level
  capacities needed for effective management of the
  Mechanism
• Need to sufficiently fund the process
• Importance of APRM process being inclusive and
  transparent

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• The ECA Executive Secretary, through
  representation, added his voice
• Review the duration of the APRM Can it be
  shortened?
• The importance of aligning the APRM process to
  similar instruments and frameworks that also seek
  to raise standards of democracy and good
  governance
• Importance of APRM to master the requisite
  resources and capacities

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• The AfDB Vice President (Operations) also
  concurred with the others
• Stressed the strategic value of good governance,
  cataloguing the efforts of AfDB in this area
• Saw the absence of good governance as
  compromising the correctice intervention role
  of governments

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Main Messages from Session 2 on Setting the
Background
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• The Forum was updated on what has transpired so
  far, stressing the following
• National/country reports have been prepared
  available on cd
• A Synthesis Report has been prepared that will
  be made available later
• The aim of AGF-VI being that of critically
  examining the challenges and lessons learnt at
  the country level
• Aims to come up with 4 key outputs

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• How to advance the APRM process
• How to strengthen the institutions at the
  country/institutional level
• After the process, how do we manage the national
  program of action to ensure effective
  implementation
• How to manage the huge information gap about APRM
  at the country level and with respect to our
  Partners

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Main Messages from Session 3 on Country
presentations
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3 Broad Recognitions
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• The APRM process is an important instrument
  towards the enhancement of good governance and
  socio-economic development
• The countries voluntary accession to the APRM
  peer-review process is testimony to commitment to
  the ideals of the Mechanism
• APRM is still facing a host of challenges that
  ought to be seen not as obstacles to the
  realisation of good governance but as stepping
  stones towards repositioning the continent
  towards the desired goals

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Opportunities offered by APRM
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• Benchmarking Good Governance
• Enhancement of participatory and inclusive
  approaches in governance
• Enhancement of the role of the Media
• Promotion on Public-Private-partnerships
• APRM gives Africa another opportunity to act as a
  bloc in international negotiations
• APRM promises good corporate governance
• APRM contributes to national capacity building

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Country-levelChallenges
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• Poorly performing public sector
• Inadequate capacity to manage tasks associated
  with self assessment
• Unclear legal status of the national Focal
  Points/Governing Councils
• Ensuring objectivity of the peer review process
• Country ownership
• Promoting peer learning
• Promoting gender equality

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APRM-levelChallenges
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• Constraint of time
• Need for more flexibility in the APEM process to
  accommodate country specificities
• Challenge of aligning APRM to what is happening
  in the country (programs, processes, structures)
• Decentralisation of the APRM national processes
• Intensity of APRM process being too expensive for
  the relatively weaker economies.
• Defining the status of Peer Review Country
  Government President?

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Conclusions the Way Forward
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• 1. Cost effectiveness in APRM processes is
  essential

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• 2. Appropriate and strong APRM institutional
  structure at the country level is important

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3. Country ownership is essential. APRM should
not be donor-driven
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• 4. Communication and advocacy among stakeholders
  is pivotal

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• The quality and density of the commitment of all
  governments are preconditions for the success of
  APRM.

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• To secure the credibility of the APRM process,
  it should meet stringent standards of objectivity
  through, inter alia, the involvement of all
  stakeholders and the existence and utilisation of
  reliable databases

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• The Peer Review reports should be released
  simultaneously to the public and to the APRM
  Heads of State

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• The APRM Plans of Action should be aligned to
  countries programmes to secure the needed
  complementarity and avoid undue duplication of
  effort that could threaten systemic stability. In
  this respect
• it is important to develop an APRM Roadmap
• Need to mainstream National Plans of Action into
  national dev. plans

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• Sufficient financial and human resources should
  always be mobilized to secure the effective
  implementation of the APRM process. In
  particular, Country-level resource mobilization
  should be enhanced, targeting, inter alia, civil
  society and the private sector

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• The body implementing the APRM programme should,
  as much as possible, be independent

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• Monitoring and Evaluation are important tools for
  monitoring the relevance of APRM. Focus should
  primarily be on monitoring outcomes and impact.
  The development of clear ME guidelines is
  important in this regard.
• Countries should avoid one-size-fits-all
  approaches in ME
• Simplification of ME

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• Gender issues should be mainstreamed into the
  entire APRM process

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Thank you