Govt dodges AU governance assessment for 18 years
Government has been dodging the Africa Union (AU)-championed governance assessment for the past 18 years, ruining a chance to identify weaknesses and fix them to polish its image, Nation on Sunday has learned.
That image, observers point out, would have helped the country attract donors and investors.
Malawi, in 2004, adopted the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a tool through which countries periodically assess themselves and alongside the local civil society organisations (CSOs) file different reports to the AU for evaluation.
However, Malawi has not filed any report since, confirmed the South African Institute on International Affairs (SAIIA) which is supporting the Malawi APRM Popular Sensitisation Project (Maps) that seeks to push this country to participate in the peer review.
Delivering his presentation during a sensitisation workshop in Lilongwe on Friday, SAIIA head of African governance and diplomacy programme Steven Gruzd said Malawi is among 14 countries that adopted the APRM, but are yet to implement them.
The APRM seeks to foster adoption of policies that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration.
Gruzd said implementing the programme would help Malawi to be “comprehensively assessed by the African Union, identify strengths, weaknesses and remedies and offer an opportunity for CSOs to co-create in a positive way”.
On attracting investments, he said: “If investors want to invest in your country and you have clean governance, you are prepared to acknowledge your mistakes. The more you are transparent, the better.”
Meanwhile, chairperson for the CSOs led national taskforce on APRM Robert Mkwezalamba attributed the country’s failure to implement the assessment to lack of political will.
He noted that the previous administrations have been avoiding peer review for fears of exposing their weaknesses leading to the loss of public trust.
Meanwhile, the special presidential adviser on Non-Governmental Organisations and Civil Society Martha Kwataine has said the Tonse Alliance administration has sanctioned the implementation of the APRM.
She said the exercise will assist the government to assess its performance and areas it can improve on.
