Ten Years and Counting: An Implementation Review of the African Peer Review Mechanism

Abstract

The African continent is bedevilled by a plethora of challenges such as high level of poverty, low literacy, high maternal and infant mortality, widespread human rights abuses, as well as endemic corruption. Although there is consensus about the challenges facing the continent, there are contesting accounts of the underlying cause(s). While some academics locate the socio-political challenges of the continent in the discourse on colonialism, others have argued that poor governance, epitomised by weak institutions, corrupt government officials, and human rights abuses are to blame for the continent’s development woes. The latter approach is widely accepted as offering a nuanced account of the continent’s problems. This approach is one of the underlying ideas that necessitated the formation of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Constituted in 2003, the African Peer Review Mechanism has been hailed as a novel initiative aimed at addressing the socio-political and economic ills plaguing the continent. Through a review of pertinent literature, this chapter examines the implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). I argue that despite the progress in the review process, a number of challenges have undermined the success of the APRM. The chapter concludes with some policy recommendations on how the review process can be better positioned to bring about meaningful growth and development on the continent.