Involve media in APRM and NEPAD issues - Journalists

Kigali, May 13, GNA - Journalists have urged the secretariats of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to involve the media in their activities to facilitate information flow to all.

In a communique after the Sixth African Governance Forum (AGF) held in Kigali, Rwanda, the journalists noted that the media in most African states had been left out of activities of APRM and NEPAD. "The APRM and NEPAD should initiate an active process of holding joint forums with the media in various regions in Africa to educate each other on their different roles in the two processes." According to the journalists, APRM and NEPAD documents should also be translated into official languages of Africa, if their messages were to permeate the entire population.

They further called for the establishment of a media/journalists desk at the APRM and NEPAD secretariat to strengthen active participation of journalists in the review, monitoring and evaluation process.

The sixth AGF hosted by Rwandan President Paul Kagame attracted 300 delegates from 32 African countries, including Ghana. The three-day forum was under the theme: "Implementing the African Peer Review- Challenges and Opportunities."

During the forum, journalists shared information and explored views of donors on APRM and learned from a panel of non-governmental organisations how they perceived the mechanism. Experts from Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya and Mauritius presented different phases of the review process of their respective countries.