CHAPTER 16 Development, good governance and South-South cooperation: the African Peer Review Mechanism Bronwen Manby* 2. States shall have the duty, individually or collectively, to I. Introduction ensure the exercise of the right to development. This chapter analyses the African Peer Review In line with this commitment, for several decades Mechanism (APRM) in the light of the version of the African States have taken an active part in debates criteria to assess development partnerships prepared concerning the strengthening of the concept of the by the high-level task force on the implementation of right to development as an international obligation. the right to development and submitted to the Work- Indeed, the Declaration on the Right to Development ing Group on the Right to Development in 2010 (A/ was adopted in 1986 in large part as a result of Afri- HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2/Add.2). After setting the can support. At the level of the African continent itself, Mechanism in the context of the New Partnership for there is also a more recent commitment to action to Africa’s Development (NEPAD), it examines the nature achieve sustainable development through mobili- and functioning of the Mechanism, explores whether zation of domestic resources and through reform of it is a development partnership, and then focuses on continental and national institutions supporting gov- the content and process of integrating the right to ernance and development. Among the most important development into the Mechanism. initiatives in this regard are the transformation of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union II. Africa and the right to in 2002 and the adoption by the African Union of development many new normative documents, including NEPAD and APRM. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted in 1981, five years before the Decla- III. The New Partnership for Africa’s ration on the Right to Development, specifically recog- Development and the African nizes the right to development in its article 22: Peer Review Mechanism 1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom A. New Partnership for Africa’s and identity and in the equal enjoyment of the common her- Development itage of mankind. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development is a strategic framework setting out a “vision for Africa’s * Senior Programme Adviser, Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), Open Society Foundations. renewal”, initially adopted by African Heads of State 218 REALIZING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT | Cooperating for the right to development in 2001 and endorsed by the first Summit of the out of poverty; to achieve the average 7 per cent new African Union held in Durban, South Africa, in growth rate needed to meet the Millennium Develop- 2002.1 It is an amalgamation of different plans for an ment Goals, for which it estimated that an additional “African renaissance” developed by President Thabo $64 billion a year, or 12 per cent of Africa’s gross Mbeki of South Africa, President Olusegun Obasanjo domestic product (GDP), would be needed. In order of Nigeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria to achieve this goal, NEPAD emphasizes both the and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, as well responsibility of Africans and the concept of mutual as documentation prepared by the Economic Commis- accountability, i.e., that those who trade with or give sion for Africa (ECA), and was devised originally as aid to Africa have responsibilities of their own. Though an initiative separate from the creation of the African much criticized by civil society groups for its neolib- Union, in part at least to avoid the “lowest common eral bent and lack of analytical rigour, and even by denominator” effect of a continent-wide body. Follow- some of its original Government supporters (notably ing many years of discussion on the need for greater President Wade) for failure to deliver, the NEPAD integration of the NEPAD initiative into African Union vision has received wide endorsement within Africa processes and structures, the Assembly of Heads of and is the official economic development programme State and Government of the African Union adopted of the African Union. a decision in February 2010 that approved various measures to ensure greater coordination between NEPAD explicitly recognizes that “peace, secu- NEPAD and the rest of the African Union, as well as rity, democracy, good governance, human rights and renaming the NEPAD Secretariat the NEPAD Planning sound economic management are conditions for sus- and Coordinating Agency (NPCA).2 However, NPCA tainable development”.4 Accordingly, democracy and remains headquartered in South Africa, distant from good governance form the second point of an eight- the main African Union institutions in Addis Ababa. point agenda, by which “African leaders will take NEPAD is governed by the Heads of State and Gov- joint responsibility for … [p]romoting and protecting ernment Orientation Committee (HSGOC) (until Feb- democracy and human rights in their respective coun- ruary 2010 called the Heads of State and Govern- tries and regions, by developing clear standards of ment Implementation Committee (HSGIC)), made up accountability, transparency and participatory govern- of three States from each of the African Union’s five ance at the national and subnational levels”.5 Overall, regions, which in turn reports to the African Union “[t]he objective of the New Partnership for Africa’s Assembly. The first Chair of the Committee was Presi- Development is to give impetus to Africa’s develop- dent Obasanjo, who handed over to Prime Minister ment by bridging existing gaps in priority sectors in Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia in 2007. A 20-member order to enable the continent to catch up with devel- steering committee of personal representatives of oped parts of the world. The new long-term vision will the Heads of State oversees programmes, supported require massive, heavy investment to bridge existing by NPCA, which is seen as a technical body and is gaps. The challenge ahead for Africa is to be able to supervised by the Chair of the African Union Commis- raise the required funding under the best conditions sion (the Secretariat of the African Union). possible. We therefore call on our development part- ners to assist us in this endeavour.”6 The NEPAD document3 focuses primarily on eco- nomics: bridging the infrastructure gap and the digital The NEPAD document has many weaknesses, divide; agriculture, science and technology; capital but the central recognition of the dependence of flows; and market access. Its stated aim is to lift Africa economic progress on political good governance is of critical importance: hitherto, many African Gov- 1 Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, thirty- ernments had been content to blame their economic seventh ordinary session/fifth ordinary session of the African Economic problems on the history of colonialism and continuing Community, Lusaka, 9-11 July 2001, Declaration on the New Common Initiative, document AHG/Decl.1(XXXVII); Assembly of the African Union, injustice of the international system rather than taking first ordinary session, Durban, South Africa, 9 and 10 July 2002, Declara- clear responsibility for aspects within their own con- tion on the Implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), document ASS/African Union/Decl.1(I). The Durban Summit was trol. The document does not, however, go on to use both the last of the Organization of African Unity and the first of the African concepts of rights-based development or the right to Union. The NEPAD Declaration adopted at Durban was adopted by the African Union. development in its analysis of existing problems and 2 Decision on the integration of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development proposals for future action: the NEPAD endorsement (NEPAD) into the structures and processes of the African Union including the establishment of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), document Assembly/AU/Dec.283(XIV) (2 February 2010). 4 Ibid., para. 71. 3 New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) (October 2001), avail- 5 Ibid., para. 49. able from www.nepad.org. 6 Ibid., paras. 65-66. Development, good governance and South-South cooperation: the African Peer Review Mechanism | PART THREE 219 of human rights is segregated from its discussion of corporate governance; and socioeconomic develop- objectives in relation to infrastructure, health or edu- ment. cation.7 The Declaration also committed participating NPCA is not itself an implementing body, and it States to establishing an African peer review mecha- must work through the African Union’s regional eco- nism, “to promote adherence to and fulfilment of the nomic communities (RECs)—the “building blocks” of commitments contained” in the Declaration.10 The first African economic integration recognized in the 1991 document describing the mechanism in some detail, Abuja treaty establishing the African Economic Com- adopted at the same summit in July 2002, sets out its munity—and other African Union institutions to realize mandate as “to ensure that the policies and practices its vision. While it may have been a good decision of participating States conform to the agreed politi- not to create another new institution with overlapping cal, economic and corporate governance values, authority, the ability of NEPAD to act is currently con- codes and standards contained in the Declaration strained by the lack of will of its collaborating partners on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate to move forward along the same path. The RECs vary Governance”.11 On 9 March 2003, HSGIC adopted greatly in their own institutional capacity and overlap the Memorandum of Understanding on the African with each other in geographical reach. In operation, Peer Review Mechanism12 (hereafter “Memorandum NPCA has focused largely on economic matters and of Understanding”) and six countries signed it right development policies, starting with the development of away, bringing it immediately into force.