Pretoria, 02 March 2019 – African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) launched the African Governance Report (AGR) at the Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria, South Africa. The event brought together African stakeholders to discuss the recommendations of the AGR and how all these stakeholders can adopt them in order to improve governance in their respective countries. The Report was addressed by the Speaker of the South African Parliament, Madame Baleka Mbete who hailed Report as historic in line with the mission of the APRM to help Africa introspect. Hon. Mbete emphasised that peer review will not always result in findings that the country being reviewed will like – but the exercise is meant to rebuild Africa’s governance trajectory.
In adopting the report, the African Union Assembly of Heads of state and government reaffirmed that APRM should take a responsibility to monitor and evaluate the role for the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030. The APRM was given the mandate to ensure that the recommendations of the report are discussed across the continent so that they can be implemented.

“Today we are launching the Africa Governance Report which was produced by African Governance Architecture with the APRM as the lead agency. For the first time the African Union has produced its own report on the state of governance in Africa and from the launch we will be going to regions on the continent and taking it down to communities for people to engage with it and look at the recommendations for purposes of implementation”, said APRM Continental Secretariat CEO, Prof. Eddy Maloka.

The launch attracted various speakers who graced the high-level panel to discuss two critical themes coming out of the report – namely the issue of transformative leadership in Africa and constitutionalism. Amongst the speakers who weighed in on the debate were: Dr Chana Pilane-Majake (Representing South African Focal Point, Hon. Ayanda Dlodlo), Hon. Khayar Oumar Defallah, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang, Ambassador Bene M’Poko, Prof. Eddy Maloka, H.E Baleka Mbete, Dr Abdalla Hamdok, Bishop Dinis Salomao Sengulane, Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, H.E Ambassador Osama Abdel Khalek, H.E Stephen Julius Masele, H.E Ambassador Ndumiso Nthsinga, H.E Ambassador Lazare Makaya Safouesse, Hon. Bernard Konan and Prof, Fatima Karadja.

The AGR assesses the state of governance in Africa with a purpose of providing Member States with an inclusive foundation for constant and continuous tracking, analysis of government trends and to assist governments to improve good governance as well as the implementation of best practices and proposed recommendation for improvement of 5 key areas of their priority namely: transformative leadership, constitutionalism and the rule of law, peace, security and governance, nexus of development of development and governance and the role of regional economic communities (RECS) in African governance. This is done to achieve objectives of the AU Agenda 2063 aspirations and Global UN 2030 (SDG) and to continue to align with their National visions, development plans and action plans. All these factors must be able to end all forms of discrimination and exclusion, promote democratic principles and institutions, popular, participation and good governance, most importantly to protect human’s rights. Both of these Agendas emphasises the importance of rapid economic growth that is inclusive and strengthened by structural economic transformation.

Although the launch was with a focus on the African Governance Report, the main overall focus was how will they as African stakeholders come together and practice the implementation of good governance in Africa.