Addis Ababa — The Capacity Development Division (CDD) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa jointly organized a workshop entitled "Harmonizing Zambia's African Peer Review Mechanism national plan of action with existing development strategies and the medium-term expenditure framework", in Lusaka on 28 and 29 October 2014.

The objective of the workshop was to provide participants with information about best practices and procedures for harmonizing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) national plans of action with pre-existing national plans, within the context of a common medium-term expenditure framework.

The workshop brought together key APRM practitioners from Zambia who are engaged in designing, costing, implementing and monitoring the national plan of action. Participants included members of the national APRM secretariat, staff directly involved in the formulation of the national budget from various ministries, representatives of the private sector and civil society organizations, the APRM continental secretariat and the UNDP country office. Al-Amin Abu Manga, lead APRM panel member for Zambia, also took part. A total of 85 participants attended the two-day workshop.

The Deputy Minister of Justice of Zambia, Keith Mukata, acting on behalf of the Acting President of Zambia, and the APRM focal point, Edgar C. Lungu, officially opened the workshop. In his key note address, Mr. Mukata underscored the importance of the workshop for addressing key challenges, examining governance deficits, deploying best practices for the effective implementation of the Zambian plan of action, and providing Zambia with concrete tools and ways to synchronize the plans in the context of the current development framework.

Plenary discussions were held on: APRM as a governance improvement mechanism; the harmonization and integration of national plans of action with existing national plans; funding and implementation of such plans; and monitoring and evaluation of APRM national plans of action.

At the end, the participants expressed their profound gratitude to the strategic partners, ECA and UNDP, for organizing the workshop. The Ministry of Finance also made a commitment that the national plan of action would be streamlined into Zambia's national development planning for 2013-2016. ECA would follow-up on the recommendations made and continue to provide technical assistance to the country in all areas.