31st APR Forum to welcome Burundi as 42nd member of APRM

Burundi

Burundi

The 31st Ordinary Session of the African Peer Review (APR) Forum of Heads of State and Government, under the chairmanship of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa cum chairperson of the APR Forum, will February 4 welcome the Republic of Burundi as the 42nd member state of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

By Adam Alqali

The session is holding on the sidelines of the upcoming 35th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, holding February 5 – 6.

Burundi’s accession to the APRM was confirmed by President Évariste Ndayishimiye when he received in audience, a delegation from the Continental Secretariat of APRM led by its CEO Professor Edward Maloka, in Bujumbura on Tuesday. The President therefore said Burundi was pleased to pursue these reforms with the support of the APRM and the African Union hence his decision to sign the instruments confirming his country’s accession to the Mechanism at the forthcoming APR Forum.

President Ndayishimiye described APRM as Africa’s home-grown instrument in furtherance of the ideals of Pan-Africanism, good governance, and socio-economic development of the continent adding that owing to the various challenges his country had grappled with in recent years particularly political conflicts, his government had embarked upon peacebuilding efforts including reforms of the police as well as administrative and fiscal decentralisation.

Prof. Maloka informed the President that the APRM had been mandated by the AU Assembly to ensure universal accession by all the 55 AU member states to the Mechanism by 2023 and sensitised the President on the advantages of Burundi’s membership of the Mechanism. He congratulated President Ndayishimiye for the progress Burundi had recorded under his leadership in the areas of food security and conduct of peaceful elections.

It would be recalled that the APR Forum had during its 30th ordinary session in March 2021 welcomed the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the 41st AU member state to accede to the APRM. In line with the Assembly’s mandate, APRM Continental Secretariat had since embarked on a campaign towards universal accession through a series of high-level consultations with the leaderships of non-APRM Member States. It is as a result of these efforts that Botswana, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, DRC and now Burundi have recently joined the Mechanism.