Projects > Brief descriptions > Support for Pan-African Institutions in South Africa

Contact person

Mr Gerald Duda
Email: gerald.duda@giz.de

Political and Economic Integration of Africa

Programme description

Title: Support for Pan-African Institutions in South Africa
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Africa
Lead executing agency: African Union (AU)
Overall term: 2006 to 2015

Context

The founding of the African Union in 2002 provided an institutional framework to promote cooperation, peace, good governance and development in Africa. This is to enable African countries to empower each other and use their strengths and unique solutions to create better living conditions for all Africans.

The German government is supportive of African integration as propagated by the African Union and is actively engaged with selected Pan-African institutions to promote this integration. Three years ago, in 2006, this engagement was institutionalised within the Support for Pan-African Institutions in South Africa (SPAI) programme.

Objective

The programme aims at improving the efficiency and operative capability of the institutional structures of the Pan-African Parliament, integrating the secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development into the structures of the African Union and stabilising and deepening the African Peer Review Mechanism process on the national and continental level.

Approach

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have special responsibilities for the promotion of reform processes to advance the economic and political integration on the African continent. Germany contributes through technical assistance in their organisational development, including operational support in selected areas such as good governance. This increases partner capacities with the result that procedures and services, as well as communication and coordination amongst them and with other institutions, are improved.

The Pan-African Parliament is based near Johannesburg in South Africa. It is an organ of the African Union and was established in 2002. Each member state is entitled to send five parliamentary delegates of whom at least one is a woman and reflecting diversity of political opinions in national parliaments. The Parliament became operational in 2004. Initially, it was only entrusted with advisory powers and is currently facing the political and institutional challenge of turning into a body with legislative powers. Germany supports the Parliament in this transformation process, through technical advice, financial contributions and support to networking. Amongst other contributions, the Parliament and GIZ regularly organise journalists’ training during the ordinary sessions which allows young African journalists to report back to their countries about African integration and which increases the outreach of the Parliament.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development is the socio-economic programme of the African Union and is considered the motor of the African reform process. It was launched in 2001 by the heads of state and governments of Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. One of the goals of the initiative is that the African countries execute joint development programmes in partnership with the international community. Among the key areas are capacity and infrastructure development, agricultural sector reform, promotion of inter-African trade, promotion of education, health, science and technology, and the participation of women and the civil society in the process of political and economic integration. GIZ’s focus is on consulting, moderating processes and subsidies for activities. This refers particularly to areas such as organisational development, especially regarding the ongoing process of NEPAD’s integration into the African Union structures. Furthermore, GIZ focuses on the reform of governance and participation of women and civil society. Amongst the mentioned areas of focus GIZ works closely with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development to formulate a comprehensive communications strategy that intensifies the engagement of regional organisations and member states in implementing the initiative. Other initiatives are: the development of capacity through the implementation of the Capacity Development Strategy Framework, mainstreaming gender issues.

The African Peer Review Mechanism is an African-owned instrument for governance assessment. This assessment is based on the standards of good governance that African countries have agreed upon, covering the areas democracy, economic management, corporate governance and socio-economic development. Participation in the peer review mechanism is voluntary and countries that have decided to participate assess their own governance situation in a participatory approach, including civil society and private sector. Based on this self-assessment, the country develops an action plan to improve good governance in the country. In a second stage, an independent African expert mission conducts a review of the respective country. Both reports, the expert one and the self-assessment one, are submitted to the heads of state of participating countries (peers) for discussion.

GIZ supports the initiative and has also lent its country office support to countries partaking in the review mechanism during the self-assessment phase and for the implementation of the resultant national action plans.

Results achieved so far

The political and economic integration of Africa has still a long way to go, but through this project Germany assists important actors of the African reform and cooperation agenda to work towards the achievement of their objectives. The African Peer Review Mechanism for example has had a strong impact on raising the levels of good governance in Africa by setting new standards and creating a peer pressure among African states to improve governance in their countries.

The Pan-African Parliament is on its way to become the voice of Africa and to assure that African interests are heard and taken note of globally. Among other functions the Parliament has gained a positive reputation as an impartial institution for the observation of elections.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development will continue its arduous task to build common and cross-border infrastructure like the submarine cable system thereby promoting development and linking the people of Africa to the rest of the world.