Africa moves to peer-review
2004-02-14 20:08
Kigali - African leaders ended their summit here Saturday a step closer to implementing a unique peer review system that would allow countries to name and shame states on the continent that fail to live up to set of agreed principles of good governance.
The 16 participants in the system, known as the Peer Review Mechanism (PRM) left the Rwandan capital having adopted a set of criteria defining "good governance", a crucial initial step if the peer system is to work.
"The most important point is that we can now start evaluation," Mozambican President Joachim Chissano said at the end of the two-day summit in the Rwandan capital.
The 16 countries that have so far signed on to the PRM are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
That number could rise to 17 after Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo announced at the end of the summit that Angola had decided to join Nepad.
Recovery plan
The PRM is one of the pillars of Nepad, an ambitious recovery plan drawn up by the African Union three years ago.
The plan is for the achievements and shortcomings of Nepad members with regard to good governance and human rights to be henceforth assessed by the others.
"It is in our best interest to look at ourselves and say yes, we are well dressed," said Obasanjo.
Kenya, Ghana, the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and Rwanda will this year be among the first states to submit to review.
On Friday Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of the Nepad steering committee underlined the importance of participants in PRM adopting the criteria submitted to them so that the process of evaluation could begin in coming weeks.
The PRM has significance on the wider international stage as it is a means of giving foreign investors greater assurance of political and economic stability to commit themselves to an African country.
One diplomat in Kigali at the summit said that with PRM investors "are assured that they won't be arbitrarily expropriated from one day to the next and that customs duties will not be suddenly raised, and so on."
Critics of PRM regret the lack of provisions for punitive sanctions for those who fall short of good governance benchmarks or who fail to comply with recommendations made by the PRM measures.
Strong moral pressure
But a more optimistic observer noted that "there will still be a strong moral pressure. Everyone will have an interest in submitting to such an evaluation, and not only with regard to donors."
Within 18 months it is hoped that all the countries that have signed up to the PRM will have been evaluated. Reviews will be repeated once every two to four years thereafter to give governments and investors an indication of progress made.