Djibouti has recently launched a task force charged with developing a monitoring strategy for the National Development Strategy’s pillar on governance, and is also poised to take the first steps in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

Djibouti has recently launched a task force charged with developing a monitoring strategy for the National Development Strategy’s pillar on governance, and is also poised to take the first steps in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Recognizing that there are opportunities to capitalize on these parallel processes, and wishing to make the most of lessons learned by “APRM pioneers”, national stakeholders and the UNDP global programme recently met and identified key strategic points for coordination between the two processes. 

 

 

Governance assessment in Djibouti:

 

A special unit was recently tasked to monitor the implementation of the Djibouti national development strategy and report directly to the prime minister. To develop a monitoring framework for the governance pillar of the strategy, the General Secretariat of the Government is leading a multi-stakeholder task force. The task force is composed of concerned ministries, the national statistical office, academics, the office of the auditor general, the national coordinator for the upcoming APRM process, and is supported by the UNDP Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments.

 

Simultaneously, Djibouti is scheduled to launch the APRM self-assessment process following the turn of the year, and the APRM national council, a body of independent experts charged with planning and implementing the APRM process, has recently been appointed.

 

 

Tapping into Synergies:

 

A recent review of experiences by ‘APRM pioneers’ has revealed that key shortcomings of the APRM process included lack of follow-up on recommendations made in national APRM reports, as well as the lack of monitoring of the implementation of national ‘programmes of action’. In Djibouti, this challenge could be addressed by synchronizing ongoing efforts to develop a national governance monitoring system with the soon-to-start APRM process.

 

By investing early in the design and institutionalization of a monitoring system, it is hoped that the follow-up on Djibouti’s APRM Programme of Action will be made easier and more systematic. In this context, it was agreed that the expertise and work of the task force responsible for developing a governance monitoring system for Djibouti should also be leveraged by the national APRM coordination unit, and vice versa.

 

For instance, the task force plans to map governance data sources in Djibouti. This mapping will also be useful to the APRM committee; in turn, the task force could take advantage of the consultative process facilitated by the APRM committee when conducting the APRM self-assessment, to seek feedback from all stakeholders on proposed governance indicators for Djibouti. The APRM questionnaire suggests a list of assessment ‘criteria’ for the various themes of governance, but stops short of suggesting specific indicators which could be used to measure these criteria.

 

 

 Support from the UNDP Global Programme: