AU agency says governance improving in Africa

NAIROBI, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — A specialized agency of the African Union (AU), African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), said Thursday that the governance by national governments in the continent is improving.

Eddy Maloka, CEO of APRM told a pan-African forum in Nairobi that there is greater respect for the rule of law across the region.

“There is also a greater embrace of constitutional structures to deal with differences among African leaders,” Maloka said during the inaugural meeting of APRM network in Africa.

He called for further improvement in the level of governance because it will result in better social and economic performance in the continent.

Africa is the only continent to initiate such a unique mechanism, which reviews the performance of a country against all the components of governance – democracy and human rights, economic governance, corporate governance as well as socio-economic development.

The APRM promotes policy dialogue between leaders and citizens through the national self-assessment, in the process highlighting critical overarching challenges impeding the development of individual countries and collectively, the African continent.

Maloka observed that countries that are governed better tend to use national resources to improve the quality of life for their citizen, noting that most African countries have now put in place structures to ensure more inclusivity in the sharing of national resources.

The APRM official said the governance challenges are one of the biggest drivers of civil conflict within African countries. Moreover, cases, where leaders come into power through unconstitutional means, have drastically reduced as democratic space expands in the continent.

The APRM aims to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth and sustainable development in the continent.

Maloka noted that bad governance results in misuse of public resources which results in high unemployment levels, especially among the youth.

“This can cause social instability as the youth who form the bulk of the African population feels excluded from job opportunities,” he said. Enditem