President Jakaya Kikwete at the 19th African Union summit in Addis Ababa at the weekend where he joined other African heads of state and government for the continent’s highest political meeting. (Xinhua)

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and other African leaders met on Saturday at one of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) forums. APRM, formed in 2003, is a nation self assessing voluntarily membership committee made up of Heads of State from the African Union (AU).

Barrister Muna, the lead panelist for the Tanzanian procession and the APRM CEO for the Tanzania Country Chapter, Rehema Twalib, confirmed reports that Tanzania’s Country Review Report (CRR) will be ready by September this year.

CRR is the periodic review that takes place every two to four years as part of the membership package. The APRM Forum meetings are usually held at the margins of the African Union Summits.

APRM, the ‘country progress monitoring mechanism’ that the organ is, attained yet another major milestone, as Niger, Cape Verde, Chad, Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea, acceded to join the organisation and brought total number of participating countries to 35 of the 54 AU members.

Speaking during the opening session after signing the accession treaty, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger said that the APRM will allow strengthening of social peace and foster sustainable development as well as regional integration.

Following his election victory earlier this year, President Mark Saly of Senegal made his first appearance joining his fellow heads of state who were receptive and took the opportunity to congratulate him in person.

The meeting also received and deliberated progress reports from Algeria, Burkina Faso and Uganda. The reports detail the progress made and degree of success in the implementation of APRM National Programmes of Action.

APRM was created to cultivate the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth. It was created as part of the framework and objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The organisation sends what they refer to as a ‘mission team’ that meets with all national stakeholders and Government Departments and also any other well organised bodies.

Some of the other Heads of State in attendance were, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, President Boni Yayi of Benin, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Prime Minister of Algeria, Ahmed Ouyahia and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

Tanzania acceded to the APRM in 2004, the first country assessment report was completed in 2009 and reviewed in 2011 come January, the President will be submitting it before his peers.

Through a budget approved by Parliament, the Tanzanian government committed itself to providing 84.4% of the financial needs in 2007/8, while UNDP Tanzania committed itself to providing for 15.6%.

The government was only ably to meet half of the required funds, as per the organ’s site, aprmtanzania.org UNDP Tanzania pledged to provide the rest of that year’s funding to cover the deficit.

The entire review process needs substantial funding, in its first year, APRM estimated for Tanzania the costs to be about 2.5bn/- (USD2m) the amount increases by about a million shillings each year.

APRM Tanzania estimated its funding requirements to be in the region of 3 billion shillings (about USD2.5m) for operations in 2008/09. In that year the government pledged to provide for 66 per cent while UNDP committed itself to meeting the rest.