APR programme not political - Governing Council
Gilbert Boyefio
20/05/2009
Ghana's African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council has underscored the fact that the programme is not political and as such cannot be used to score political points by any politician.
According to the Governing Council, the APRM is a people centered programme and owned by the people of the country.
The Council stressed that the APRM review report of a country is not an indictment or commendation of a particular government or a sitting President, but rather the citizenry as well as the country.
This, the Governing Council, explained, is so because all the information that the report is based on emanate from the people and cannot be influence by any government.
Interacting with pressmen during a visit by the Sierra Leone's APRM Governing Council, Samuel Kwesi Adjepong, Chairman of Ghana's APRM Governing Council, observed that the President only represents the country to be reviewed by his peers.
Ghana was peer reviewed in January 2006, and the Chairman recalled the commotion that the release of this report caused in Ghana; with the two leading political parties in the country, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, trying to make political gains out of it.
The APRM is an African self-monitoring system. It entails a country voluntarily accepting to undertake an internal audit of its political, economic, corporate and socio-economic governance system by ordinary citizens after which an external audit or verification is conducted by an independent Panel from the African Union. The Report prepared together with a Programme of Action enable other Heads of State to peer review the affected country to encourage policies and practices that foster good governance and development.
On whether a government of a country that had acceded to the APRM can decide in future to disassociate itself from the programme, Rev Prof Adjepong answered in the negative. He said since the APRM is an African Union programme any government that attempt to do so would not find it easy. Worse still, he pointed out, that government stands the risk of being ostracized by the AU. He also disclosed that there are portions in the Memorandum of Understanding that member countries sign that makes it difficult to get out of the APRM programme.
"Governments come and go, but the citizens remain the same people,” he added.
So far only 9 countries, including Ghana, have been peer reviewed out of the 24 countries that have acceded to the APRM. The remaining 15, including Sierra Leone, are in the pipeline to be peer reviewed.
According to Osman Obla, Chairman of the Sierra Leone's APRM Governing Council, they chose Ghana because of its trail-blazing achievement in implementing the APRM programme. He said the delegation believe that if Sierra Leone is to succeed in the implementation of the APRM, it has to learn from the front runners.
He said although the Sierra Leone APRM Governing Council was recently inaugurated, it has been able to put in place a strategic action plan. He said they acknowledged that capacity building and the need to have a national programme is very important and has therefore established an Education and Information Dissemination Committee, as well as a Fundraising Committee.
20/05/2009
Ghana's African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council has underscored the fact that the programme is not political and as such cannot be used to score political points by any politician.
According to the Governing Council, the APRM is a people centered programme and owned by the people of the country.
The Council stressed that the APRM review report of a country is not an indictment or commendation of a particular government or a sitting President, but rather the citizenry as well as the country.
This, the Governing Council, explained, is so because all the information that the report is based on emanate from the people and cannot be influence by any government.
Interacting with pressmen during a visit by the Sierra Leone's APRM Governing Council, Samuel Kwesi Adjepong, Chairman of Ghana's APRM Governing Council, observed that the President only represents the country to be reviewed by his peers.
Ghana was peer reviewed in January 2006, and the Chairman recalled the commotion that the release of this report caused in Ghana; with the two leading political parties in the country, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, trying to make political gains out of it.
The APRM is an African self-monitoring system. It entails a country voluntarily accepting to undertake an internal audit of its political, economic, corporate and socio-economic governance system by ordinary citizens after which an external audit or verification is conducted by an independent Panel from the African Union. The Report prepared together with a Programme of Action enable other Heads of State to peer review the affected country to encourage policies and practices that foster good governance and development.
On whether a government of a country that had acceded to the APRM can decide in future to disassociate itself from the programme, Rev Prof Adjepong answered in the negative. He said since the APRM is an African Union programme any government that attempt to do so would not find it easy. Worse still, he pointed out, that government stands the risk of being ostracized by the AU. He also disclosed that there are portions in the Memorandum of Understanding that member countries sign that makes it difficult to get out of the APRM programme.
"Governments come and go, but the citizens remain the same people,” he added.
So far only 9 countries, including Ghana, have been peer reviewed out of the 24 countries that have acceded to the APRM. The remaining 15, including Sierra Leone, are in the pipeline to be peer reviewed.
According to Osman Obla, Chairman of the Sierra Leone's APRM Governing Council, they chose Ghana because of its trail-blazing achievement in implementing the APRM programme. He said the delegation believe that if Sierra Leone is to succeed in the implementation of the APRM, it has to learn from the front runners.
He said although the Sierra Leone APRM Governing Council was recently inaugurated, it has been able to put in place a strategic action plan. He said they acknowledged that capacity building and the need to have a national programme is very important and has therefore established an Education and Information Dissemination Committee, as well as a Fundraising Committee.
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