African Peer Review Mechanism - South Africa

Welcome to the Website hosted by South Africa's APRM Governing Council.

The APRM is a system introduced by the African Union to help countries improve their governance. It is a way of looking forward while taking account of where we are today.

Participation in the system is voluntary. A Panel of Eminent Persons appointed by the APRM Secretariat oversees its implementation throughout Africa. South Africa’s APRM process is overseen by our APRM Governing Council, which has ten civil society members and five from Government.

The system has a number of stages:

• The development of a country self-assessment report and a programme of action. This is based on a questionnaire that looks at four themes: Democracy and political governance, Economic Management, Corporate Governance and Socio Economic Development.
• Once we have developed a Country Self Assessment Report and a Programme of Action, they are submitted to the APRM Secretariat.
• A Country Review Team led by the Panel member responsible for SA will visit us to consult a wide range of stakeholders on the Report.
• The Country Review Team writes a response to our report and all the Reports are all submitted to the APR Forum and later publicly released.
• Progress by countries in implementing their Programmes of Action is reviewed in later years.The point is to encourage African countries to plan a way forward for themselves and to implement their plans.

As a Member State of the African Union, South Africa has applied to be reviewed. The President allocated the Minister for the Public Service and Administration the overall co-ordinating responsibility for the APRM process in SA.