African Peer Review Mechanism back with a whimper?

The African Peer Review Mechanism is back. However, there are concerns that this instrument, which is meant to help African governments rate one another’s performance, is biting off more than it can chew. The Daily Maverick notes that more than half of Africa’s countries don’t have reliable stats on how many people are born and die within their borders, even though recording this information is supposed to be one of the most basic functions of government. Despite a lack of such stats and other data from 30 African governments, an instrument originally created for African countries to evaluate and advise each other is now also, ambitiously, set to take on the task of reporting how countries are faring in reaching their international development goals. Nevertheless, the CEO of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) secretariat, Eddy Maloka, is excited about this seemingly impossible task. ‘We have to be a think tank for Africa on governance, and will have to be Africa’s tool for self-monitoring. If we fail to do it, we will be irrelevant, so now it is survival of the fittest based on our value-add and relevance,’ he said. ‘If we keep on simply doing reviews and only four countries do reviews every year, we will die,’ he said on the sidelines of a three-day technical meeting and celebration of the APRM’s 15th anniversary in Kigali, last week. The report notes that then instrument’s recent revival started in June 2015, when Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta took over the chair. Maloka was appointed six months later. Recently, as part of the continental body’s reform package, the AU assembly additionally tasked the APRM with tracking the governance aspects of the AU’s 50-year plan, Agenda 2063, as well as the UN’' 17 sustainable development goals.

Full Daily Maverick report