Kingdom wants to accede to peer review mechanism

Lesotho wants to sign up for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), according to a New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) communique. Lesotho's intention was discussed at a recent meeting of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The mechanism, overseen by the panel, monitors a country's progress towards political and economic reform and was put in place earlier this year. Seventeen African countries have signed up so far. Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Mauritius were the first countries to accede, and the meeting in Johannesburg noted that the review process was at an advanced stage in Ghana. Six more countries - Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria and Mali - are to be added to the priority list of applicants awaiting the peer review process. The panel was also planning to procure the necessary information for initiating the review process from Angola, which had expressed its intention of signing up in February this year, the communique said.