Pan-African Parliament to improve governance

Photo/FILE Former Liberia President Amos Sawyer after a meeting with Kofi Annan at Serena hotel, Nairobi on November 30, 2010. NATION MEDIA GROUP

Posted Thursday, May 9 2013 at 13:13

In Summary

• This it says will see PAP allocate a day during each of its upcoming Sessions to analyse and debate reports from reviewed countries and ensure that national plans of actions are implemented.
• The arrangement will start during PAP's next session which takes place in October this year.
• The move came after a request by Professor Amos Sawyer, Chairperson of the APRM's Panel of Eminent Persons and former President of Liberia.

JOHANNESBURG, Thursday

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has announced its commitment to a partnership with the Panel of Eminent Persons of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

This it says will see PAP allocate a day during each of its upcoming Sessions to analyse and debate reports from reviewed countries and ensure that national plans of actions are implemented.

The arrangement will start during PAP's next session which takes place in October this year.

The move came after a request by Professor Amos Sawyer, Chairperson of the APRM's Panel of Eminent Persons and former President of Liberia.

In his presentation at Wednesday' s session in Johannesburg, Mr Sawyer urged the setting-up of an APRM Committee within PAP tasked with discussing APRM reports and their implementation in details.

"We cannot overstate the achievements of the APRM nor the significant progress made in the number of countries that have undertaken a review," Sawyer told the delegates.

"However, we believe that regular engagement should take place in a structured way to help advance the implementation of the APRM in member countries of the African Union," he added.

Mr Sawyer said countries that had completed reviews faced difficulties in implementing national plans of action due to the fact that they were not catered for in countries national budgets.

"Gaining access to the network of Pan-African Parliamentarians will thus play a key role in ensuring that PAP MPs would push for the inclusions of budget provisions for the implementing of national action plans," he said.