The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) on Thursday formally launched its report on the peer review of Mozambique, at a ceremony in which Amos Sawyer, President of the Interim Government in Liberia in the early 1990s, and now a member of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons, delivered a copy of the report to President Armando Guebuza.The report has in fact been ready for about two years. It was first unveiled at the African Union summit in Sirte, Libya, in 2009. But the subsequent steps – the launch in Mozambique, and implementation of the recommendations of the National Programme of Action – were delayed, first by Mozambique’s 2009 general elections and then by changes in the composition of the APRM Panel.Kenyan diplomat Bethwell Kiplagat had been the panel member responsible for accompanying APRM implementation in Mozambique, and he was replaced by Sawyer.Sawyer claimed that publication of the report was “a landmark achievement in the promotion of good governance in Mozambique”.He said the country had emerged from a troubled past “to find peace, reinvent itself and make progress in all fields of governance”. Among the successes in governance that he listed were the implementation of the 1992 peace agreement between the government and the rebel movement Renamo, “policy dialogue with civil society”, and a reduction in the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their children,But the report also pointed to various challenges, added Sawyer, including separation between the ruling Frelimo Party and the state, a high crime rate, domestic violence, a high level of illiteracy, gender inequality and over-dependence on foreign aid.He hoped that the report “will be widely read by the Mozambican people and that the government and the people will use it as they dedicate themselves to implementing the programme of action that flows from it. The report is of little value unless the issues it raises are tackled”.The chairperson of the Mozambican National APRM Forum, Lourenco do Rosario, said that the country is incorporating the recommendations from the report into its programmes of governance. Members of the government have been appointed who will work with the National Forum in producing regular progress reports that monitor implementation of the recommendations.
One of the functions of APRM reports, Rosario said, was to forecast possible social problems that might occur, so that governments were forewarned and could take corrective measures.For instance, in Kenya the APRM Forum warned the government of the problems that could result from the unjust distribution of resources. The government paid little attention to such warnings, and as a result the post-election violence of 2008 exploded. Guebuza pledged the government’s continued commitment to multi-party democracy and to a culture of dialogue at all levels. The principles of political and economic governance enshrined in the APRM, were now “part of our political culture”, he said.Guebuza stressed the government’s programme of decentralization of powers to local and municipal level, and the role of the local Consultative Councils “which allow transparent management of public assets”.He added that the government was determined to show that “corruption and crime don’t pay” – and the evidence for this was the increasing number of corruption cases that have come to court.Guebuza pledged that the government will carry out the recommendations of the APRM report, and he challenged the National Forum “to prepare for the implementation and monitoring of the National Plan of Action”.