A Path Way to a New Start? Appraisal on the NEPAD's Peer Review Mechanism
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Date
2010-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Even though most of African co untries have been politically independent from political
colonization the quest for political stability and economic prosperity was denied by the fore ign
intervention, the proliferation of conflicts, coups and counter coups, corruption and other sever
economic mismanagement. The continent of Africa at the dawn of the 21 51 century was still
plagued by poverty, disease and ignorance on different social issues, These contributed to
Africa's peripheral and diminishing status in the world economy \\hich in turn resulted in the
marginalization of the African continent from the world economy.
That's why on the turn of the 21 51 century African leaders ag reed to change this image of African
by replac ing the previous organization, OAU, with the new one AU for new hopes, ambitions
and commitments. The creation of AU as a new African institutional architecture was supported
by the adopting ofNEP AD as a program of action for the new Africa. NEPAD is, AU bel ieves, a
vehicle for solving prevalent problems of bad governance. and provide a new way for African
development. The central part ofNEPAD is APRM based on the bel ief that no redemption can
occur unless AfTican countries engage in some form of se lf assessment, cr itique through peer
review mechanism and some form of mutual accountabilit) to one another and to their people.
Thus the main issue of the paper, therefore, is to ana lyze and discuss the structural and
functional capability of APRM whether it can cope up with the mandate its given under different
documents to examine the performance of the reviewed states. The research seeks to address
how far and how well APRM is performing in its mandated task since its incept ion in 2003. The
writer specifica lly dea ls with whether the APRM, in its cu rrent form and mandate, could be a
major regional review mechanism and an instrumcnt in pre>mo ting de mocracy, good governance.
sustainable development and respect for human rights for .-\Iricans as it claims. The paper aims
at understanding the rea l structure and how far APRM has succeeded in fulfilling its purpose in
its rdatively short lile span and what needs to be do ne to better equ ip the mechanism to achieve
it's desired object ivc s. The writer approaches the research ~ ue st ion by se Icct ing benchmarks for
good peer review Irom other similar international mechan isms whe> use peer revielY to monitor
compliance and check holY well such benchmarks arc being incorporated under the APRM.
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Keywords
NEPAD's Peer Review Mechanism