President Cyril Ramaphosa will, in his capacity as Chairperson of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), chair the 30th African Peer Review (APR) Forum of Heads of State and Government meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 25 March 2021.

President Ramaphosa assumed the chair of the APRM in February of 2020. The APR Forum is a Committee of Participating Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the African Union (AU) who have voluntarily chosen to accede to the APRM. This authority is the highest decision-making body in the APRM.

The APR Forum has ultimate responsibility for oversight of the APRM organisation and processes, for mutual learning and capacity building, and for exercising constructive peer dialogue and persuasion. These programmes are in place to make the APRM effective, credible and acceptable.
 
The 30th Summit of the Forum will, among other items, welcome the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the newest Member State to accede to the APRM. The Summit is also expected to conduct the peer review of Liberia; discuss reports on targeted reviews of Sierra Leone and Zambia; receive a briefing on Sudan’s governance gap analysis, and receive an update on progress in Nigeria’s second review process.
 Kenya and Mozambique will also make presentations on the implementation of their national programmes of action.
 
President Ramaphosa will also use the opportunity of the 30th Summit of the APR Forum to apprise his counterparts about the progress of the 2nd Generation Review in South Africa.
 
The African Peer Review Mechanism was established in 2003 as a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) that serves as a platform for sharing experiences and reinforcing best practices towards political stability, accelerated economic growth and regional and continental integration as well as sustainable development.  It further seeks to foster change in underlying deficiencies in governance and socioeconomic development processes among member states.

The Mechanism uses a holistic review process that distinguishes it from other institutions through inclusive dialogue, independent and objective reviews, peer learning and compliance monitoring.