Pretoria - Cabinet has approved the marking of the month of March as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) month.
“The APRM will be marking its tenth year of existence on 9 March. South Africa is preparing for its third and final country report since it was peer reviewed in 2007,” said Acting Cabinet Spokesperson Phumla Williams on Thursday, at a Post Cabinet briefing.
Williams said provincial consultations on the report are currently underway in various provinces, adding that South Africans are urged to participate in these consultation meetings.
On Monday, KwaZulu-Natal hosted its consultative summit on the APRM.
The consultations are being held in preparation for the submission of a progress report on the implementation of the National Programme of Action (NPoA) of the APRM.
The APRM is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the African Union member States as an African self-monitoring mechanism.
The APRM was adopted by the African Heads of State and Government as a systematic peer learning and self-assessment mechanism based on the NEPAD Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance adopted at the inaugural Summit of the African Union in Durban, 2002.
The mandate of the APRM is to ensure that the policies and practices of participating states conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards on democracy, political, economic and corporate governance.
The primary purpose of the APRM is to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practices.
The country will present its third progress report on the implementation of the NPoA at the African Union Summit of Heads of States and Government (HOSG) of APRM participating countries in May 2013. - SAnews.gov.za
