Pretoria - Public Service and Administration Minister Roy Padayachie is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Focal Point Select Committee meeting, which kicked off on Friday.
The APRM Focal Points are ministers or high-level country officials who report directly to their respective Heads of State or Government.
The APRM Focal Points are appointed soon after a country accedes to the peer review mechanism and are subsequently responsible for managing the process, updating the Heads of State or Government on the national progress, facilitating the self-assessment process and liaising with the African Peer Review (APR) Panel throughout the exercise.
This is the committee's first meeting following its meeting in April to develop the Operating Procedures for the APRM.
The Operating Procedures propose an organisational framework that seeks to address institutional effectiveness of the APRM, operational and organisational efficiency of the APR structures, strengthening of the accountability, management and organisational functioning of APRM, institutional responsibility of focal point Ministers and strengthening and enhancing the professional and technical work of the panel.
The committee will discuss the integration of the APRM into structures and processes of the African Union (AU), the host country agreement and the structure of the APR Secretariat and the recruitment of staff to the Secretariat, the development of a programme for the 10th Anniversary of the APRM and the administrative and budget issues/processes of the APR Secretariat.
A meeting with the African Union (AU) Commission will also be convened to discuss some of the issues.
