Nairobi, 29 - 30 March 2023 - The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and partners convened in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya, a two-day meeting to finalise the APRM questionnaire on State Resilience to Shocks and Disasters. Partners who attended included the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Regional Office for Africa (UNDRR-ROA), UN-Habitat, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Africa Risk Capacity (ARC), AU Commission Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy (SEBE), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa (WHO-ROA), the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and Member States Representatives. Three APRM Member States, namely Sierra Leone, Zambia and Mozambique also participated in the meeting.
The meeting was a direct response to Member states’ request for comprehensive assessments on the five thematic areas and builds on the findings of the pilot test of the APRM Questionnaire on State Resilience to Shocks and Disasters during the second generation review of South Africa, held in December 2021. It therefore aimed to provide a technical platform for expert discussions for the Questionnaire’s validation and guide future country review and targeted review missions. During the opening statements, Ambassador Dr. Samori Okwiya, CEO of the NEPAD/APRM Kenya, emphasised the importance of the meeting and the need to accelerate Africa's efforts on Disaster Risk Management. Mr. Ferdinand Katendeko, Ag, Director of Operations, representing the CEO of the APRM Continental Secretariat, Prof Eddy Maloka, stated that ‘‘this meeting should be considered as a platform where we are given an opportunity to talk about many common threats, challenges that we have identified in various reports, and particularly for us to be able to put into relief where they are needed the most in order to reduce the occurrence of disaster events’’. Mr. Harsen Nyambe, Director of SEBE and Mr. Amjad Abbashar, Chief UNDRR-ROA indicated that through country reviews APRM will play a key role in assessing the efficacy of DRR related frameworks on the continent.
Hon. Amara Kallon, Deputy Minister of Public and Political Affairs of the Republic of Sierra Leone, stated that building resilience to shocks and disasters should be central to the Africa We Want. Participants shared their contributions through presentations of their respective organisations' work in relation to state resilience and response to shocks and disasters.
On the second day of the meeting, participants discussed and reviewed the main objectives, questions and indicators of the APRM 5th thematic Area. All partners, including GIZ, committed to support to APRM’s activities geared towards resilience building. On behalf of the CEO, Mr. Ferdinand Katendeko expressed APRM’s gratitude to participants and their respective institutions for invaluable contributions during the two-day meeting.
It is important to note that since its inception in 2003, the APRM assessment questionnaire has included four thematic areas: Democracy and Political Governance (DPG), Economic Governance and Management (EGM), Corporate Governance (CG), and Socioeconomic Development (SED). However, the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic in AU Member States led the Heads of State of APRM to integrate State Resilience to Shocks and Disasters (SRSD) into the mechanism's governance assessment questionnaire, increasing the questionnaire's scope to five thematic areas.
