Effective  stakeholder  participation  in  the  APRM  Process  for  the  promotion   of democratic  governance: a case study of Ghana

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is ‘an instrument voluntarily acceded to by Member States of the African Union as an African self-monitoring mechanism’. Its primary purpose is to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to the attainment of the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

This paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of stakeholder participation in the Ghana ‘s APRM process and makes recommendations for improvement and to deepen democratic governance practice. The paper thus aims to be a tool for facilitating effective stakeholder participation in the ARPM processes, and indeed to improve stakeholder participation in other decision-making processes.


The paper first gives a background of the APRM, which is an integral aspect of NEPAD, and the factors that necessitated NEPAD.

It then defines the key concepts of the paper, and explains the context within which stakeholder participation is discussed, i.e. the APRM structure and process at both the continental level and the national level in Ghana. This is followed by an analysis of the nature of stakeholder involvement in the APRM process in Ghana. Stakeholder participation is discussed with reference to the key stages of the APRM implementation process, and the challenge of successful capacity building for stakeholder participation is addressed.

Based on these findings, broad recommendations are offered in final section, with a focus on
· strengthening participatory planning process:

• ensuring effective stakeholder involvement at all stages of the APRM process
• deepening national and continental ownership of the APRM
• developing strategies for strengthening public education and awareness

The paper advocates that values, principles, and ethics such as courage, honesty, transparency, accountability and altruism are critical in ensuring effective implementation of the various stages of the APRM process for the attainment of its noble objectives. As to whether difficult but effective measures will be chosen over easy but ineffective ones that can be ‘polished’ through publicity and propaganda, is influenced by these factors.