Sharm El-Sheikh, 4 June 2022 – The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was honoured to participate in the 47th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Development Bank Group, which took place from 1 – 4 June 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The meeting activities brought together delegates from all over the world, including representatives of 57 member countries of the Bank, international organizations, financial institutions, private sector, civil society organizations (CSO), and leading experts from various fields. The theme of the 2022 Annual Meeting focused on “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability”. The AM also featured seminars, workshops, and other events related to the overarching theme.The APRM was invited to take part in one of the flagship side events entitled ‘’ Governance Beyond Recovery: Towards A More Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Future’’. The side event engaged distinguished panellists including H.E Amb. Ashraf Rashed, Chairperson of APRM National Commission in Egypt, Dr. Nibal Idlebi, Chief of Innovation at the United Nation-Economic Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), Dr. Mahmoud Badr, on behalf of the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Ms. Sara Hamouda, Agenda 2063/SDG Unit – Officer in charge. The panel was chaired by Dr. Sherifa Sherif, Executive Director of Institute of Governance and SDG.
The side event discussed lesson learnt and impact of COVID-19 on Public Governance in developing countries. Further, it discussed key challenges facing IsDB countries alongside opportunities in ensuring frameworks and multilateral approaches to promote inclusive and collaborative innovation and technology within the south-south cooperation.
Amb. Rashed displayed the historical foundation of APRM in 2003 as it reflected a decisive action by AU member states to enhance reporting on governance issues in Africa and sharing best practices through a national voluntary process. He also referred to the national governance assessment report conducted by the Arab Republic of Egypt in 2019/2020 to address aspects of governance in the last few years. He further highlighted the key recommendations and best practices shared in Egypt’s assessment report, especially those pertinent to promoting good governance, human rights, inclusiveness and transparency practices.
Reflecting on how IsDB member countries could, especially those in Africa, collaborate in the field of effective governance to help achieve the Agenda 2063 goals, Ms. Hamouda emphasized that governance is a cornerstone for the implementation and monitoring of both Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 alongside recovery programs from the COVID-19 pandemic. She added that thanks to APRM engagement with AU member states either through governance assessment reviews or regional platforms on SDG and Agenda 2063, there is a huge potential in African capacities to execute joint initiatives in many sectors including governance in health sector and pharmaceutical production, supporting governance enablers for starting business and promoting Private-Public Partnership for the implementation of and Agenda 2063 MEGA projects especially infrastructure and other labour-intensive industries, , supporting technology transformation across the continent which is imperative for stimulate business in Africa.She explained that Access to Information (ATI) cannot be attained without enhancing technology infrastructure especially that Africa remains the least connected continent in the world and only 10 of 45 tracked African countries meet the affordability standard for internet, as referenced by the United Nations Broadband Commission. Only four African countries are, likewise, ranked below 100 according to the e-government index: Seychelle, Mauritius, Tunisia, and South Africa.
Ms. Hamouda referred to the current collaboration between APRM and IsDB to support economic and social resilience in Africa under the South-South Cooperation tools. She emphasized that African countries could strengthen knowledge sharing on governance issues for the effective implementation of SDG including the APRM High-Level forum on SSC in Kampala -Uganda by Sept 2022 and other capacity building training on SSC eco-system within the IsDB-APRM joint plan of activities 2022-2023.
She also alluded to the significance of the IsDB group as a developmental bank which prioritises investment in human capital and supporting strategic sectors in many countries. Accordingly, Peer-learning between African countries can, likewise, be promoted -with the support of the IsDB- in various programs including National Development Planning, Poverty assessment, tracking CEPA principles for social justice and effective Public Service delivery, Resource mobilisation and statical support.
It is worth noting that the IsDB includes membership of 57 countries. The bank has various African member countries which are also members of APRM including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.
