APRM Revision To Ensure African Women, Youth Voices Are Heard

APRM female participants impressed by the revision

African youth and women voices will now reach the rightful ears and grab the attention of Heads of State following the revision of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Country Self-Assessment Base Questionnaire and two tool kits focusing on youth participation and gender equality in the mechanism.

The (APRM) is an autonomous entity of the African Union, established in 2003. It is a voluntary self-monitoring tool for African Union (AU) Member States, aimed at promoting and strengthening democracy and good governance.

Though the mechanism has been vital in reviewing progress made in these areas, it lacked the inclusiveness aspect of integrating emerging issues on the continent such as youth, gender, climate change and Artificial intelligence among many others affecting the continent today.

The document revision was proposed in 2020 and revised in 2021 compelling Heads of State to assign and task a team of experts to streamline the document before it is rolled out to APRM member states for implementation.

The revision included the APRM country self-assessment based questionnaire and the two toolkits (youth and women) which have already been piloted in member states (South Africa, Zambia and Namibia) and will be used to measure country progress in these areas.

The team of experts to review the revised APRM for the next 3 days in Kigali

This team of experts are now meeting in Kigali at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel from 18-22 November 2024 to agree (review, update and enrich) the revised country self-assessment base questionnaire and tool kits that will later be presented to the AU Heads of State.

Dr. Ousmane Diallo, the APR Panel of Eminent Persons who officially opened the meeting said that women and youth who compose a larger percentage of the African population can no longer be ignored in good governance and development.

“Inclusiveness is now very important and when it comes to governance, we cannot do without women and youth who represent more than 50 percent of the population,” Diallo said.

Diallo said that will make sure the questionnaire and toolkit is adopted and take care of the new dynamics to open opportunities of collaboration to strengthen governance in African states.

Dr. Ousmane Diallo (in a hat), the APR Panel of Eminent Persons

The new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the APRM Continental Secretariat, Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose-Quatre said the The adopted 2021 revised review intends to address emerging issues such as gender, youth, technology (artificial intelligence), environment and climate change among others.

“This questionnaire plays a crucial role and offers a tangible entry point into all the APRM programs implemented in member states. Finalizing it and consolidating it therefore is important,” Rose-Quatre stated.

Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose-Quatre (middle) used a video message to stress the importance of the APRM revision

Dr. Ana Luis Haule, the Executive Director of MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MS TCDC) in Tanzania, who worked very closely with the AU on the toolkit for youth said that youth and women’s voices have not been heard and yet they are the most affected when there is conflict or issues of governance.

“We work together to ensure that youth have a voice in Africa because often we have these questionnaires but what is the input of Youth? So for us, we have worked very hard to ensure that the youth voice is heard,” Haule said.

Dr. Ana Luis Haule, the MS TCDC says women voices should equally be heard as men’s voices

As an African woman, Haula said that she is very happy that women’s voices, which have always been second after men, will now be heard.

“So we need this mechanism here and such reviews to ensure that when we are asking the right questions, the women’s and youth voices are heard to ensure that everything that we do always has the youth and the women’s picture, because they’re the ones we forget,” Haule said.

Rwanda in Focus:

Rwandan lady (right) representing NISR shares with a visiting delegate her experience of being a woman in leadership in Rwanda

Rwanda Governance Board Deputy CEO, Dr. Félicien Usengumukiza said that the APRM lacking a review on women and youth has not been a loss to Rwanda since the country has already made progress to include these categories in their governance policies and strategies.

For instance, the gender policies in Rwanda have witnessed over 63% women represented in parliament and currently the Rwandan Senate is dominated by women (53%).

Though youth roles are still low and youth unemployment cuts deep, Rwanda has also ratified the AU Youth Charter and started implementations with annual activities such as Youth Connect which act as a platform for opportunity, knowledge sharing and creation of jobs.

“This is a chance for us to share our experience and the journey with other APRM member states because governance and development are a shared aspect in this peer review,” Usengumukiza said.

Dr. Félicien Usengumukiza

Peter Katwesigye, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, APRM Continental Secretariat said that the APRM report will be directly presented to the Head of State for each country as it is, therefore issues of youth and women will be heard this time around.

“What makes APRN different is our report reaches the highest decision makers in the country and we all know that is the president. Whereas when we are in the University setting, however strong it is, it may never reach that level, but for the case of the APRM, our research reaches the president and then we all know solutions of possible policy changes,” Katwesigye explained.

Peter Katwesigye

In case of negotiations, Katwesigye said that this can be undertaken within the context of the APRM process and the country itself to improve some of the emerging challenges identified, however the voices of African women and youth are finally going to reach the right people.

Based on the fact that the APRM is for Knowledge sharing experience learning and peer exchange, Katwesigye said that Rwanda will play a key role in showing other neighboring states what it did right and how Rwanda can technically share its experience with its neighbors.

Osten Chulu (middle), a Senior Economic Advisor, UNDP Rwanda shares the UN perspective on inclusiveness

Anticipated Benefits:

Engaging youth and women in the APRM has anticipated benefits that we can see in the next five years.

Katwesigye said that one is there will be policy change but also Improved governance, and since the country reports will be presented at the AU level, this will be an avenue for investor, donors and development partners like the World Bank to use the report to intervene in reported challenges with major projects- for instance to create employment as in the case of findings recorded in Namibia youth review.

Cyrus Munyaburanga Nkusi, the CEO Governance for Africa said that without an inclusive APRM that engages youth and women, this creates many gaps in governance thus the revision was a timely response to their advocacy efforts