NEPAD summit begins in Kigali

Eleven African heads of state and governments began a two-day summit on Friday in the Rwandan capital Kigali, to review the continent's economic and political policies under the auspices of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). So far just Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Mauritius have signed up to form the first batch of nations to be reviewed on good governance, democracy, human rights, transparency and domestic business environment under NEPAD's African Peer Review Mechanism. The purpose of the peer review is to foster the adoption of appropriate laws, policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth and sustainable development on the continent. The heads of state are expected to agree on a timetable and format how to monitor individual countries that have signed up for the peer review. "To ensure transparency and accountability in the review process, the heads of state are expected to draw up rules and procedures, which will be approved to guide the conduct of all stakeholders," Louis Napo Gnagbe, the media manager at the NEPAD Secretariat, said. So far, 16 African governments have agreed to be rated on macroeconomic policies, transparency, human rights, democracy and the business environment. The peer review mechanism, established in 2003, seeks to counter Africa's reputation for bad governance. "This will be done through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practices including identifying deficiencies and assessing the needs for capacity building," Gnagbe said. He told IRIN that guidelines had already been sent to countries that had agreed to be rated and review teams would be dispatched soon. The 16 states that have signed up for review include Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Rwanda, a country experienced horrendous mass killings during the genocide of 1994, hopes that positive indicators from the review teams would help improve the confidence of donors and woo foreign investors. "The process will entail periodic reviews of the policies and practices of participating states to ascertain progress being made towards achieving the mutually agreed goals and compliances with adopted political, economic and corporate governance values and socioeconomic development codes and standard," Gnagbe said.