AU, NEPAD and the APRM: Democratisation Efforts Explored, Current African Issues 32

The African Union (AU) and The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) reflect a hitherto unprecedented collective political effort by African governments to address issues of democracy and good governance on a continental scale. The visible commitments are reflected in the adoption of a variety of programmatic blueprints and a series of newly created or recently strengthened institutions. Most visibly since the integration of NEPAD into the AU, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has started a process to address some of the obstacles on the basis of a voluntary assessment of African government policies.

The contributions to this publication trace the recent developments from a policy perspective and explore the scope and limit of the current democratization efforts. They present an interim prognosis on the extent to which the visible new dynamics actually give realistic hope for achieving sustainable changes in terms of the declared goals.

This publication is useful for political scientists, policymakers, and other professionals dealing with Africa in development assistance.

The African Union (AU) and The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) reflect a hitherto unprecedented collective political effort by African governments to address issues of democracy and good governance on a continental scale. The visible commitments are reflected in the adoption of a variety of programmatic blueprints and a series of newly created or recently strengthened institutions. Most visibly since the integration of NEPAD into the AU, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has started a process to address some of the obstacles on the basis of a voluntary assessment of African government policies.

The contributions to this publication trace the recent developments from a policy perspective and explore the scope and limit of the current democratization efforts. They present an interim prognosis on the extent to which the visible new dynamics actually give realistic hope for achieving sustainable changes in terms of the declared goals.

This publication is useful for political scientists, policymakers, and other professionals dealing with Africa in development assistance.

Henning Melber is Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. He was Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute and co-ordinator of the project “Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa” (2000–2006) and Director of the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek (1992–2000).

Zein Kebonang lectures at the Department of Law, the University of Botswana in Gaborone.

Charles Manga Fombad lectures at the Department of Law, the University of Botswana in Gaborone.