South Africa will start the process of establishing and finalising the country’s new African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) National Governing Council (NGC) on Saturday, February 1, 2020.
Public Service and Administration Minister, Mr Senzo Mchunu, who is also the Focal Point for the APRM in the country, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the gathering to be held in Kempton Park.
As from next month, the country will also assume chairpersonship of the APRM taking over from the Republic of Chad.
The formation of an NGC will pave the way in preparing for the country’s Second Generation Review.
Once established, the new NGC will be expected to lead the country self-assessment process, ensures its credibility, and ultimately produce the Country Self- Assessment Report (CSAR).
The APRM is an organ of the African Union (AU) established in March 2003 to fast track the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
South Africa is one of the founding Member States of the APRM and was among the first countries to be peer-reviewed.
The APRM is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by African Union (AU) Member States as an African self-monitoring mechanism to foster good governance in the continent through a systematic peer learning and self-assessment mechanism.
Its primary purpose is 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 needs for capacity building.
The APRM Secretariat works with Member States to develop and implement the culture of good governance, to enable the respective countries to monitor and evaluate their pace of development and ensure better life for their citizens.
Since the first review, which took place in 2005, South Africa has produced three (3) progress reports based on the recommendations of the first peer review. The last one was tabled in 2014.
In its work-stream of review missions to Member States, the APRM Secretariat and its team of experts undertook a broad-based consultation in the form of an advanced mission to South Africa in June 2018 to probe the country’s readiness for a second review.
A two-day APRM high level brainstorming session was convened by the Focal Point last year early November at Saint Georges in Centurion followed by the APRM Public Dialogue held in November last year in Durban.
The establishment of South Africa’s new APRM NGC will pave way and set the tone for the roll out plan of the 2nd Generation Review process, and provide an opportunity to bring all the stakeholders to discuss strategic issues that are important to nation building and invigorate the substantive aspects of the APRM processes in South Africa.
In order for the Review Report Process to be meaningful, government is calling on all citizens to own up, participate, and be at the forefront of the implementation of the APRM Program of Action.
