Africa report card ?way behind schedule?

THE first scorecard in an African peer review plan to rate governments in order to win more donor and investor support will be produced in April or May instead of this month, a New Partnership for Africa?s Development (Nepad) official says.

The Group of Eight, most industrialised countries, the African Development Bank and bilateral donors have said they will boost aid to countries that receive good peer review reports and may cut aid to those that perform poorly.

Reviews are under way in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Mauritius.

The reports for Ghana and Rwanda will be handed to a panel of African leaders due to meet in Egypt next month, says a spokesman for Nepad.

Some 23 of Africa?s 53 countries have so far signed up to peer review, hoping to enhance their transparency credentials.

Nigeria, SA and Senegal are waiting for a review, which is now running months behind schedule.

The Nepad spokesman says there is a possibility of the summit in Egypt being delayed until May because of a conflict in the schedules of heads of state.

?Work is going on but handing over of the reports has been delayed until April. If the summit takes place in May, then those reports would be handed over at that time,? he says.

A severe staff shortage and a debate on whether Nepad?s secretariat and African peer review mechanism staff should be moved to African Union (AU) headquarters in Ethiopia from SA is hampering the process, analysts say.

?The mechanism?s secretariat doesn?t have the manpower to do the job,? says Ross Herbert, head of the Nepad and governance programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.

?It is a bad sign. You?ve got to do this job properly to ensure its credibility.?

A Nepad source said internal recruitment rules restrict to just two the number of experts and researchers that can be hired from each of the AU?s 53 members, which left the peer review mechanism with only a handful of competent staff to do the job.

Peer review is a big plank in Nepad, a home-grown economic rescue plan aimed at boosting foreign investment in the world?s poorest continent, which gets a tiny share of the global total.

Evaluators will assess governments? records in democracy, human rights, peace and security, economic policy, and business environment.

They interview government officials, civil society leaders and the private sector for their reports, which will be made public.

Sceptics say Nepad is yielding more talk than action, and the voluntary nature of peer review means countries with the worst records are unlikely to put themselves up for scrutiny.

The Nepad spokesman says that after the reports are handed over to the organisation?s heads of state panel, countries reviewed will be given a six months to study it and accept peer help, before the documents and remedial actions are made public.

African peer review mechanism monitors are backed by technocrats from the African Development Bank, United Nations agencies and European financial and governance groups.