Media urged not politicise Peer Review Mechanism

Accra, Jan. 16, GNA - The Governing Council of the National African Peer Review Mechanism (NAPRM-GC) on Monday appealed to the media to avoid the politicisation of the recommendations of the peer review report on Ghana.

Professor Samuel K. Adjepong, Chairman of the NAPRM-GC, said the January 22, peer review of the country in the Sudan, was a national process without party colours, and "it is intrinsically linked to all of us as one people, one nation and with a common destiny.

"The Peer Review, in a nutshell, is what we as a people have assessed as the good and omissions of our country and the corrective measures we want to adopt to address the identified omissions while sharing our best practices with the rest of Africa."

Prof. Adjepong was speaking at a media sensitisation workshop organised by the NAPRM Secretariat, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Accra.

The workshop was to galvanise media personnel in their role to educate the public about APRM and equip journalists with information to enable them to understand the modalities of the review process in order to inform the public accurately.

He explained that the Presidents of Ghana and Rwanda, the first leaders to voluntarily opt for the review, would meet other Heads of State and Governments at Khartoum, Sudan, on Sunday, January 22 for a review of their respective national reports.

He urged the media to collaborate with the NAPRM to ensure that the process succeeded in the country and also to promote good governance for a sustainable socio-economic development.

Ms Adjoa Yeboah-Afari, President of the Ghana Journalists Association, urged the NAPRM-GC to be pro-active in responses to issues and questions raised by media personnel on the peer review. Topics discussed included: Purpose of African Peer Review and the General Overview of the APR Process; Processes in the Implementation of the APRM in Ghana and Media Reportage and Misconception About the APRM. Dr Francis Appiah, NAPRM Executive Secretary, explained that APRM was a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by member states of African Union.

He said it was an African self-monitoring mechanism to encourage participating States to ensure that the policies and practices conformed to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards.

Dr Appiah said the core guiding principles of the APRM were that every review should be technically competent, transparent, credible and free of political manipulation.

He explained that it would ensure that member States adhered to the standards mutually agreed objectives in the socio-economic development as contained in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Dr Appiah said the goal of APRM was to ensure that all participating countries accelerated their progress towards adopting and implementing priorities and programmes of NEPAD.

It is also to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth rate, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful best practices.

The APR would also identify deficiencies and assess the needs for capacity building by exercising constructive peer dialogue and persuasion thereby making the process effective, credible and acceptable.