Maravi

TIZ welcomes Peer Review

TIZ welcomes Peer Review
By Bivan Saluseki
Tuesday July 10, 2007 [04:00]

ZAMBIA should open itself to objective and constructive criticism, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) president Reuben Lifuka has said. In an interview, Lifuka yesterday said the decision by the Zambian government to open itself to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was welcome although the review itself had not been inspiring.
"It is a pity that so far there has been very little meaningful engagement on the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) and APRM processes by civil society and the general public in Zambia. It is our fervent hope that this announcement by government is a firm commitment to ensure broad participation of every stakeholder," he said.

He said the APRM would only succeed if there were full involvement of citizens and stakeholders right from the beginning.

"It is unfortunate as well that government's announcement on the opening up to the APRM comes at a time when government is embarking on a process of trying to limit the space for involvement of NGOs in development through its intentions to enact an NGO bill, to regulate the operations of NGOs," he said.

"These two positions are conflicting and it is important that government is not seen to be saying on one hand, let us talk and please be engaged, while on the other hand, government is saying, we will regulate how you operate and how you engage in different processes."

Lifuka said the existence of NGOs and other interest groups, was a full expression of the freedom of association and expression, and government could not start legislating how people associated and expressed themselves.

"Transparency International Zambia equally has its concerns about the APRM particularly later stages when the country report has been prepared and submitted to the APRM Forum which is made up of the committee of participating heads of state and is the highest decision making authority of the APRM," he said.

Lifuka said so far, the peer review at that stage had not been inspiring and participating heads of states had not done enough to provide genuine and sincere advice on key areas of concern raised in the country reports.

"Such a benign approach to serious issues raised is not inspiring and makes the whole APRM process look like another grand scheme to waste resources which could be put to better use elsewhere," Lifuka said.

"The heads of state will not be doing us a favour as country if they elect to only sing our praise and fail to point out and out rightly condemn our shortcomings. Our sincere hope is that the Zambian government is doing this not simply to keep with the trend but genuinely use this as a platform to strengthen our democracy."
Lifuka said it would not help the Zambian people if the APRM was just another avenue of stroking the egos of political players.

"Let this be a collective effort by this generation of African leaders, to move the continent a step forward in the global community. We will only be taken seriously as a continent if we are able to assess our own mistakes and find lasting solutions for them," he said.
Lifuka hoped the government would take time to learn lessons from other countries that had concluded the APRM process particularly Ghana, which had had a successful process driven by an autonomous and multi-stakeholder national APRM governing council.

"Similarly, we need to be cautious not to rush the process and thus leave out the involvement of the citizens in this matter," said Lifuka.
The government has launched a national self-assessment process through the APRM.

Proponents of the review see the process as a novel way to promote democratic responsibility on the continent, but critics of APRM point out a number of difficulties. The process hinges on the premise that once reviewed, nations will have access to new resources in order to implement the recommendations. Proof of this is still to be shown.
Another problem rests on the fact that the APRM is a voluntary, nonbinding process, which could result in it being seen as toothless.

Labels: APRM, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 4:02 AM