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Civil society and the Pan African Parliament and the African Peer Review Mechanism
08 May 2007
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) are key initiatives to promote governance and, thereby, accountability in Africa. Both face daunting challenges in achieving their respective mandates. ANSA-Africa brings you the communiques from two recently concluded conferences, held in Accra and Johannesburg, which focussed on the work of the PAP and the APRM.
Conference Communique: Africa's Bold March to Capture the 21st Century – the Role of the APRM
The participants from 23 African countries that have acceded to the APRM and their strategic partners met in Accra, Ghana, from 8 – 10 May 2007 to deliberate on the theme "Africa's Bold March to Capture the 21st Century – the Role of the APRM". The conference reiterated Africa's commitment to the APRM as an instrument to foster good governance and socio-economic development of the continent.
The conference recalled the African Governance Forum VI held in Kigali, Rwanda in May 2006 w hich focused on "Implementing the APRM: Challenges and Opportunities" and all other meetings and workshops devoted to sharing experiences.
The participants reaffirmed the overall vision of the APRM and rededicated themselves to its actualization. The conference noted that 26 African countries had acceded to the APRM, 3 countries: Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya have been peer reviewed, 2 countries: South Africa and Algeria will be reviewed in July 2007 and 8 countries have received country support mission. The conference further observed the commendable steps made towards deepening good governance on the continent.
Recognizing the important role of peer learning in accelerating the implementation of the APRM, the participants encouraged it as a means of overcoming the challenges of rolling out the national APRM process through the identification of critical success factors and best practices.
Recognizing the capacity constraints and the need to exploit synergies among development initiatives, the conference underscored the importance of harmonizing the National Programs of Action (NPoAs) and existing national development strategies.
Furthermore, the participants affirmed the necessity to retain the unique identity of the APRM process in order to preserve its credibility as an African owned governance monitoring and evaluation tool that should primarily depend on internally mobilized resources.
The conference emphasized the need to redouble efforts in finding innovative financing mechanisms to implement Africa's own development agenda and in this regard reaffirm the essential role of mutual support and cooperation among African countries.
The participants recognized the significant efforts that have been made by the African countries in furthering their development objectives and acknowledged the supportive role of development partners and the need to deliver on NEPAD's Principles of Mutual Accountability and Responsibility.
The participants rededicated themselves to the tenets of APRM and encouraged countries to accelerate its implementation and urged those countries that are yet to accede to do so.
Finally, the participants expressed their sincere appreciation to the National APRM Governing Council of Ghana for hosting this important conference.
The conference congratulated Dr. Francis Appiah of Ghana on receiving the German African Award, for his role in promoting the APRM.
Issued this 10th day of May 2007 in Accra
Conference Communique: Consultative Dialogue between African CSOs and the Pan African Parliament
The Pan African Parliament (PAP), in collaboration with the Southern Africa Trust, held the first Consultative Dialogue with African civil society organisations under the theme "Building Effective Mechanisms for Civil Society Engagement with Pan African and Regional Institutions" on 7-8 May, 2007 at the Gallagher Estate, Midrand, South Africa.
Among other things, the Consultative Dialogue sought to sensitise civil society organisations to the work of the Pan African Parliament especially appraising them of the Rules of Procedure and work of the Parliamentary Committees as well as exchange views and information on current issues pertinent to the development of Africa.
Coinciding with the 7th ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament being held from 7-18 May, 2007 under the theme The African Union Government, the Consultative Dialogue provided an opportunity for civil society organisations to reflect on the proposal on the Union Government in preparation for the African Union Summit in June 2007 in Accra, Ghana.
Officially opening the historic Consultative Dialogue, Hon. Dr Getrude Mongella, President of PAP called on civil society organisations to actively participate in the proceedings and plenary sessions of parliamentary committees and engage on African development issues. Dr Mongella emphasised that it is not the role of civil society organisations and parliaments to govern but oversee those who govern to ensure that policies are pro-people.
On the African Union Government, she invited civil society organisations to sensitise their constituents and present their views on the issue before the next African Union Summit in June as it was imperative for them to inform the strategic areas of focus for a Union Government. To promote relations between the PAP and citizens of Africa, Dr Mongella noted that PAP will establish a civil society dialogue unit.
One of the four Deputy Presiding Officers of Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union (AU), Mr Charles Mutasa, also addressed the official opening ceremony. In his address, Mr Mutasa noted that momentum has been built around the establishment of national chapters to opearationalise the ECOSOCC and CSOs need to take advatage of this space. He however noted that the ECOSSOC work is being hampered by lack of adequate resources.
In attendance were civil society representatives from Africa including research institutions, trade union networks, faith-based organisations and community based organisations.
On engagement with the PAP, the PAP representative challenged the CSOs present on their limited engagement with PAP despite their willingness to do so. It was resolved that CSOs need to take advantage of the opportunities that the PAP provides for CSO engagement such as the parliamentary committees, and other organs of the parliament - the Bureau and the Permanent Committees. More importantly, there is need to insitituionalise the engagement between PAP and CSOs to ensure that there is continuity, constant collaboration and sustained engagement.
In this regard, it was noted that an independent mechanism to support interfacing between CSOs and Pan African institutions is essential. Thus it was recommended that a facility be created to support sustained enagagement between civil society organisations and these institutions. However, this facility should be linked to other initiatives such as ECOSOCC and a similar CSO support facility in Addis Ababa.
Regarding the proposal for an African Union Government, which has emanated from a culmination of proposals coordinated by the Committee of 7 championed by Libya, Uganda and Nigeria among others since 2005, and which is the agenda item for the July 2007 AU Summit, CSOs concluded that while the long-term vision is desirable it is currently excessively focused on institutional reforms rather than mapping out the implications for strengthened African citizenship and needs more popularisation and consultation with citizens. It was agreed that CSOs must take the lead on generating an informed public debate on this agenda. CSOs emphasised that any Summit decisions on the proposal should be informed by wider consultations and input.
Concerning the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) campaign in Africa, it was noted that there is need to improve efforts around localising the MDGs. It was also agreed that there is need to support an integrated and inclusive anti-poverty campaign to ensure that civil society organisations inputs are evidence based and can inform policy formulation and implementation.
Regarding the global debate on aid effectiveness, the Consultative Dialogue called on civil society organisations to be more proactive in ensuring that the Paris Declaration on Aid Effeciveness is implemented more rapdily to contribute to poverty reduction, and also called on donors to continue to support efforts that enhance CSO capacities to influence policy processes including the forthcoming high-level meeting on aid effectiveness to be held in Ghana in September, 2008.
The meeting agreed to collectively ensure follow-up dicussions are held to establish sustained CSO dialogue with the Pan African Parliament and other pan-African insititutions based in Midrand, South Africa. The meeting also agreed to collaborate to support other initiatives for CSO engagement with pan-African institutions based in Addis Ababa and other parts of the continent.
Participants at the Consultative Dialogue thanked the PAP for organising the dialogue jointly with the Southern Africa Trust. They also expressed their gratitude to TrustAfrica, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Actionaid for their financial suport to this process.
Issued in Midrand, 08 May, 2007
For more details on the above-mentioned Consultative Dialogue, readers can read a feature article carried in the Mail and Guardian, entitled "Let's work together", written by Percy Zvomuya.
Civil society organisations and the Pan African Parliament (PAP) should realise that they "are not in contradiction" and that their relationship should be "complementary not adversarial", Getrude Mongella, president of the PAP, said this week in an address at the parliament's first consultative dialogue with African civil society organisations.
Mongella lamented the high levels of suspicion between civil society organisations and their governments and said the PAP and NGOs should work together to "oversee those who govern". Mongella, a former Tanzanian minister and diplomat, encouraged civil society organisations to work together and use the institutional framework already in place within the PAP to "give voice to the voiceless". She noted that the PAP was working on establishing a civil society dialogue unit to further improve relations.
In her address Mongella also invited civil society organisations to explain the proposed African Union to their constituents before the next African Union Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Ghana in June (see sidebar).
Bheki Moyo, a researcher with Trust Africa in Dakar, Senegal, noted that the AU economic, social and cultural council is the official platform for civil society to contribute to the work of the AU and its affiliated bodies, "but some contributors at the conference felt that the council was under-resourced and did not have the capacity" to deal with the continent's civil society organisations. One delegate complained that "AU people" don't respond to emails and are "always away on summits or engaged in other business".
It was because of these constraints that a civil society organisation mechanism based in Midrand is being considered to manage interactions with AU institutions located in South Africa. However, certain participants expressed concern about creating more facilities; Vitalice Meja, a programme director at the NGO, Afrodad, was wary of the proliferation of "facilities that were meant to facilitate facilities".
In his address Moyo argued that the PAP is building relations with NGOs, and said that its president, for example, meets annually with large civil society organisations. He also noted that the PAP already deals predominantly with academics, think-tanks and research institutes, "most of whom provide a research function to Parliament". By way of example Moyo noted that the Institute for Security Studies works especially closely with the PAP's committee on cooperation, international relations and conflict resolution.
Although Moyo noted that there was room for NGOs to participate in the PAP and interact with other AU institutions, he also argued that dialogue should be opened up further, observing that the African Peer Review Mechanism is "not complete until there is [civil society organisation] participation".
Moyo noted that in their engagement with AU institutions NGOs should not be relegated to a junior partnership, but engage as "equals".
In an unusually frank comment, Lyn Chiwandamira, a senior international relations officer with the PAP, noted wryly that many civil society organisations "have moved upstream" and are alienated from the people "they purport to represent" and that, in fact, "political parties are more connected to the ordinary people than some" civil society organisations, except, perhaps, those in HIV/Aids and food distribution programmes.
To stunned laughter Maurice Tadadjeu of the African Civil Society Organisation further muddied the waters by observing that the continent's faith in the AU and its organs is misplaced. "Let us not make an assumption that the AU is functional," he said, adding that we are not to "expect an institution that is not working to have functional organs".
However Irungu Houghton, Pan-African policy adviser at Oxfam, said sweeping generalisations were not useful. He said the AU had managed to confront the rest of the world in a "unified way" to negotiate on matters relating to debt cancellation, its relationship with United Nations organs such as the Security Council and more equitable trade relations between Africa and the rest of the world.
Houghton added that the AU has managed to raise the bar on "common policy standards" on health and agriculture spend and is building security capacity to deal with trouble spots such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Somalia. "It has not been a success everywhere," he admitted. For instance, increased rates of economic growth are not translating into substantive poverty reduction and the quest for peace on the continent continues, Houghton said.
He said the real challenge was not one of relevance but of creativity. Institutions such as the AU and the PAP still lacked sufficient transparency and accountability. Moyo concurred, noting that "the AU is working, although there are serious challenges". For these grandiose continental designs to work resources need to be pumped in, something that is yet to happen, he said.
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