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African Peer Review Mechanism opinion surveys kick off
2008-02-08 09:00:12
By Judica Tarimo
Technical assessment teams (TATs) commissioned to assess the country`s development processes in the context of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) are expected to conduct professional opinion surveys throughout the country beginning this month.
APRM-Tanzania executive secretary Prof. Daudi Mukangara told `The Guardian` yesterday that the surveys would be carried out throughout the country and would involve a number of activities designed to meet APRM targets.
APRM is a brainchild of African countries which was initiated in the framework of the New Initiative for African Development (NEPAD) to monitor progress made by these nations in good governance, socio-economic development, good practices, democracy and political governance.
Other areas include poverty reduction, gender balance, decentralisation, environmental and financial issues.
APRM provides for the country`s self-review, chiefly conducted by local experts and foreign experts from other African countries, to enhance objectivity and integrity of the entire process.
According to Mukangara, in the ongoing surveys experts from APRM-Tanzania have been tasked to generate statistical data on public opinion on governance in the country, among other things.
``The experts will integrate the respective opinions with the results of desk research conducted between October and December, last year,`` he added.
``They will also conduct special and in-depth supplementary studies. It is expected that at the end of the February-April period, there will be information generated separately by public assessment,`` said Mukangara.
As part of the assessment, APRM-Tanzania distributes questionnaires to the public who are supposed to fill and submit them to the national secretariat.
According to the executive secretary, more questionnaires will be distributed, adding that soon the Kiswahil version of the questionnaires would be made available.
``At the end, TATs will compile the entire country self-assessment report. They will do so by integrating information from the public submissions with the ones generated from technical and supplementary studies,`` clarified Mukangara.
APRM-Tanzania officials said the country`s self assessment report is scheduled for submission in June 2008 to be followed by the report`s review at the stakeholders` forum to be held in December the same year.
``It is a realistic timetable but it is also clearly a tight one. Any significant delay or postponement of activity will take it beyond the crucial June and December, 2008 deadlines, with the result that there will be peer review of Tanzania by the forum before June 2009,`` noted APRM-Tanzania executive secretary.
Basically, APRM incorporates both an individual country self-assessment and an assessment by foreign experts from NEPAD.
``Currently, assessment is done by local experts but foreign experts will come later on for assessment,`` said Mkangara in a brief telephone interview on Monday.
So far, there are 28 African countries that have signed the APRM memorandum of understanding (MOU), Tanzania being one of them.
The government had already appointed some focal-point officers in different departments and ministries for handling APRM issues.
APRM has attracted several development partners, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
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