Addis Ababa — Economic Commission for Africa's Acting Executive Secretary, Abdalla Hamdok, on Thursday met with the Chief Executive Officer of the African Peer Review Mechanism, Edward Maloka, APRM Panel of Eminent Persons member Youssouf Khayed, and their teams to discuss joint projects being undertaken by the two institutions in their quest to encourage conformity in political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards among African nations.
Mr. Hamdok praised what he said was the remarkable partnership history between the ECA and APRM secretariat since the creation of the mechanism. Cooperation between the two was formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in August 2016.
He commended the APRM's CEO for tremendous achievements since he took the office, which include the highest rate of external reviews, increase in the number of countries participating in the mechanism and enhanced resource mobilization from Member States.
"Your recent achievements have contributed to APRM's new mandates from the African Union Assembly courtesy of Rwandan President Paul Kagame's Report, especially the need to strengthen the APRM to track implementation and oversee monitoring and evaluation in key governance areas of the continent," said Mr. Hamdok. "Rest assured at the ECA we will continue to support you."
Gambia is the latest country expressing its desire to join the mechanism.
The APRM, according to the Kagame report, will also play a leading role in the monitoring and evaluation of Africa's 50-year development plan, Agenda 2063, and the global Agenda 2030 for sustainable development goals (SDGs).
"The new APRM mandate increases prospects for universal accession through universal ratification to the APRM, giving greater reach and allowing for greater impact of the mechanism in shaping Africa's governance landscape," said Mr. Hamdok.
He said the ECA's backing to APRM Secretariat to undertake its new mandates would include focusing on monitoring of the SDGs and Agenda 2063; provide technical support and contribute to support missions, external reviews missions, national sensitization and technical or methodology's workshops, harmonization of the APRM National Plan of Actions with Existing Strategic plans.
Mr. Khayed thanked the ECA for its continuing support to the APRM, in particular Mr. Hamdok whom he praised for never missing meetings of the APRM.
"I pray that you will continue to lead this institution as we continue to work together on issues of concern to the continent," he said.
Mr. Maloka briefed the meeting of the work currently being done by the APRM, revealing Uganda, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique and Egypt have expressed willingness to be reviewed this year.
"We would like to get ECA help with statistics in terms of the work our teams are doing in various countries to make sure the data in our reports in correct," he said, adding efforts were being strengthened to shorten the APRM process.
He said the report for the June African Union Summit is ready with progress reports on Sudan and Benin being presented.
The APRM is a self-monitoring instrument voluntarily agreed to by member states of the African Union allowing Member States to check themselves in all aspects of their governance and socio-economic development.
