Ghana recommended as APRM good example

Ghana has been recommended to other African countries as a country they can look up to under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) before they avail themselves of a review.

African countries yet to submit to the APRM, were advised to read Ghana's APRM report so they can learn some of the country's best practices.

Ghana was the first to be peer reviewed, and now has Rwanda and Kenya as the only additions that have so far been reviewed out of a total of twenty-six African countries that have acceded to the APRM.

The advice was given by the Executive Director of the APRM Secretariat Dr Bernard Kouassi when he presented an update on the APRM to the Seventh Ordinary Session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) at Midrand, South Africa.

The APRM is a system introduced by the African Union (AU) to help African countries improve their governance by developing a self-assessment report and a programme of action based on a questionnaire that looks at four themes; democracy and political governance, economic management, corporate governance and socio economic development.

South Africa and Algeria are expected to be peer reviewed in Accra during the June/July AU Summit.

Among some of the benefits of the APRM, Dr Kouassi said, was that it helps to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice, including identifying deficiencies and assessing the need for capacity building.

According to Dr Kouassi, Ghana after submitting itself to the APRM was currently enjoying the trust of other African countries including the international community and advised the other countries who have not yet submitted themselves to the process to do so.

The countries that are yet to submit themselves for the review are Benin, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Mauritius, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Egypt.

Others are Ethiopia, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Zambia and Sao Tome.

Dr Kouassi however said the secretariat was in the process of reviewing the questionnaire for the reviewing process since according to him most countries were complaining about its complex nature.

Credit: Daily Graphic/Rebecca Quaicoe Duho