This project is being implemented by the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in Johannesburg, in partnership with the Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) in Lilongwe.
The APRM, established in 2003, is Africa’s premier governance self-assessment and promotion tool. The purpose of the APRM is “to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through reinforcement of best practices, including identifying deficiencies and accessing the needs for capacity building,” according to its founding documents.
Malawi voluntarily acceded to the APRM in 2004, but has made little progress since then. There are indications that the present government wishes to revive the national process. An informed and engaged civil society will be vital to its success.
The APRM is not just a government review, but a country review, in which civil society organisations (CSOs) are important stakeholders. It is a requirement that civil society be involved in a country’s process, and the APRM provides a platform to promote a wide range of governance issues that CSOs feel passionately about, through evidence-based submissions. Through MAPS, CSOs are invited to develop a comprehensive governance assessment of Malawi’s strengths and weaknesses and develop recommendations to remedy shortcomings. It is an important opportunity for robust engagement on progress and challenges facing Malawi.
The process so far
- SAIIA team members met with the MEJN in September 2022 to lay the groundwork for the project.
- Presentations from the pre-planning stakeholders’ meeting on 8 October 2022:
Useful Links
- The APRM Secretariat
- The APRM Toolkit – an online repository of APRM official documents and academic analysis
- Mastering the APRM: Creating Your Submission
- Monitoring APRM Implementation: A Civil Society How-To-Guide
- Malawi: The Big Issues (2004)
When completed, the MAPS submission will be downloadable from here
See how a similar process unfolded in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
The project partners would like to thank the Government of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for their generous support.
