Tracing the impact of the African Peer Review Mechanism on good governance and democracy in Ghana

Abstract

Despite several strides made, governance has remained a foundational issue to be addressed in the struggle for human rights and inclusive development in Africa. Almost two decades into existence, it has become imperatively necessary to evaluate the success of this struggle through Africa’s monitoring tool - the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). This work examines the progress attained in the context of Ghana, which has been acclaimed as a leading democracy in Africa and was the first country to be reviewed. Largely through doctrinal research, data was obtained from online sources and visits to key institutions in Ghana including its National APRM (NAPRM) Secretariat. The findings of this work reveal a higher success level in compliance with legal and policy adjustments, although sometimes instituted at a very slow pace. Yet attaining the anticipated human rights impact has remained a challenge. The lack of Ghana’s political will and poor funding as well as poor responsiveness from the APRM international Secretariat have highly impeded the work of Ghana’s NAPRM; including its continuous publication of Program of Action (POA) reports. It has thus mainly resorted to domestic District Governance Assessments (DGAs) which have in themselves not also been regular. The absence of political will has also been the primary obstacle to a subsequent review, and only recently has Ghana started plans to undergo a Targeted Review on specific domestic issues. This attitude has for several decades similarly been transposed into the country’s state reporting obligations under other African human rights monitoring systems, hence affecting their ability to directly impact domestic change in comparison to the APRM. The findings of this work demonstrate the need to strengthen state responsiveness to treaty monitoring obligations, as well as the workings of the APRM in collaboration with other African monitoring mechanisms.