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| Reports by country : Africa |
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Africa | Algeria | Benin | Burkina Faso | Cameroon | DR Congo | Ethiopia | Ghana | Guinea Conakry | Kenya | Lesotho | Malawi | Mali | Mauritius | Mozambique | Namibia | Nigeria | Rwanda | Senegal | Sierra Leone | South Africa | Sudan and South Sudan | Swaziland | Tanzania | Togo | Uganda | Zambia | Zimbabwe |
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Reports that cover the whole continent or several countries. |
Statelessness in Southern Africa
UNHCR
November 2012
This background paper, authored by AfriMAP senior adviser Bronwen Manby, was commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for a Regional Conference on Statelessness in Southern Africa, which was hosted by UNHCR in Mbombela (Nelspruit), South Africa 1-3 November 2011. The paper aims to be accurate up to 1 November 2011, and includes information on Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is also available on the REFWORLD website.
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Making Elections Count: A guide to setting up a civil society election situation room
OSIWA
June 2012
This Guide, published by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) with AfriMAP participation, shares the lessons from efforts to create a new model for civil society engagement with elections in the West Africa region. Named by analogy with a wartime “situation room”, established to ensure coordination between all the armed forces and civilian authorities conducting a war, the “election situation room” aims to ensure that civil society efforts contribute to free and fair elections coordinated as effectively as possible. The Guide describes the situation room model and structures; gives suggestions on how to engage the election process most effectively; highlights likely challenges for civil society in seeking to replicate it; and finally, shares examples from Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal, where this model has already been piloted.
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Election Management Bodies in West Africa
OSIWA and AfriMAP
21 May 2011
The report Election Management Bodies in West Africa responds to the evident need for more knowledge about an institution that occupies a more and more important place in the political process in West Africa. Based on documentary research and detailed interviews in six countries -- Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone -- the study provides a comparative analysis which highlights the similarities and differences in the structure and operations of each body, and attempts to establish the reasons for their comparative successes and failures. It complements the AfriMAP report on the election commission in Uganda, published in 2010.
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The African Peer Review Mechanism: A compilation of studies of the process in nine African countries
AfriMAP
20 July 2010
This publication is a compilation of reviews of the implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) commissioned by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) of the Open Society Foundations network. The reviews identify challenges that all stakeholders involved in reforming the APRM should be aware of and commit to resolving. The countries covered in this compilation are: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. AfriMAP’s aim is to contribute to discussions on the reform and strengthening of the APRM process and to increase knowledge of this ground-breaking African initiative.
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AfriMAP submission to the Project for Streamlining and Fast Tracking the Implementation of the APRM
AfriMAP
30 April 2010
AfriMAP made this submission to the APRM continental secretariat in response to the April 2010 call for comments on the APRM process. The submission is based on AfriMAP\'s reviews of the APRM process in many of the countries where it has been implemented. It states that AfriMAP believes that the APRM is, despite some challenges and set-backs, the most important effort yet by African leaders to improve governance on the continent and is strongly supportive of the initiative. However, the submission also raises concerns about the difficulties faced by the APRM, especially over the past two years. In particular, AfriMAP is disturbed by the long delays in appointing new members of the panel of eminent persons, and the continued failure to appoint an executive secretary for the APRM secretariat.
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Strengthening Popular Participation in the African Union: A Guide to AU Structures and Processes
AfriMAP & Oxfam International
27 January 2010
The African Union (AU) has committed to a vision of Africa that is ‘integrated, prosperous and peaceful … driven by its own citizens, a dynamic force in the global arena.’ (Vision and Mission of the African Union, May 2004.)
This guide is an effort to take up the challenge of achieving this vision. It is a tool to assist activists to engage with AU policies and programmes. It describes the AU decision-making process and outlines the roles and responsibilities of the AU institutions.
This guide aims to help those organisations that wish to engage the AU but do not currently know where to start by providing an outline of the key institutions and processes and suggesting ways to influence them.
The Guide is divided into three sections:
• Part 1: A description of AU organs and institutions.
• Part 2: Suggestions on how to influence AU decisions and policy processes.
• Part 3: A summary of the debate to restructure the AU into a ‘Union Government’.
[Note: the PDF of this report has been updated as of late 2010, to correct some small errors in the original text.]
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Citizenship Law in Africa: A comparative study
Open Society Foundations
21 October 2009
Citizenship Law in Africa: A comparative study, published by two programs of the Open Society Institute (AfriMAP and the Open Society Justice Initiative), describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international rights norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It includes detailed tables on comparative provisions of the law, as well as an analysis of international, African and national jurisprudence on nationality and statelessness. The report, which is twinned with the Zed Books publication Struggles for Citizenship in Africa, featured below, is also available on the Open Society Justice Initiative website. Additional resources are at the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative website. The full text is also available in French, and the summary and recommendations in Arabic, by clicking on the link to download report in sections and other languages below. The report of the launch event in Kampala and communique from the parallel workshop are here.
Second Edition 2010 Now available for download, with corrections and updates relating to Kenya, Libya, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
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Struggles for Citizenship in Africa
Zed Books
21 October 2009
Hundreds of thousands of people living in Africa find themselves non-persons in the only state they have ever known. Because they are not recognised as citizens, they cannot get their children registered at birth; they cannot access state health services; they cannot obtain employment without a work permit; and if they leave the country they may not be able to return. Most of all, they cannot vote, stand for office, or work for state institutions. Ultimately, such policies can lead to economic and political disaster, or even war. The conflicts in both Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo have had at their hearts the right of one part of the national population to share with others on equal terms the rights and duties of citizenship. This book brings together new material from across Africa of the most egregious examples of citizenship discrimination, and makes the case for urgent reform of the law. It is twinned with the report published by the Open Society Institute Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study. Chapter one of the book is available below, and the other chapters can be downloaded by clicking on the link for 'download the report in sections'; Chapter one is also available in French and Arabic via this link. The book is available for purchase from the Zed Books Website.
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The African Peer Review Mechanism and the ECA/OECD-DAC Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in the context of NEPAD
United Nations
28 December 2007
This background paper on the African Peer Review Mechanism and on the OECD-UNECA mutual review of development effectiveness in the context of NEPAD was presented by AfriMAP to the the expert task force of the UN Working Group on the Right to Development.
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AfriMAP submission to the APRM Secretariat on its review of procedures
AfriMAP
December 2007
Submission by AfriMAP to the APRM Secretariat and Eminent Persons, with detailed recommendations on the contents of the APRM self-assessment questionnaire, as well as suggestions in relation to the process of implementing the APRM at national level, including access to information, participation, monitoring of the APRM results, and harmonisation with other processes.
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AfrMAP submission to the Audit of the AU Institutions
AfriMAP
October 2007
At the African Union summit held in Accra in July 2007 at which proposals for a Union Government were debated it was decided that a review of the performance of the existing AU institutions was needed. While 'all member states accept the United States of Africa as a common and desirable goal, the Executive Council agreed on the need for a pragmatic and progressive approach and recommended an audit of the state of the Union in order to identify areas in which significant improvement have to be made in order to accelerate the African integration process.' The 'audit review' was conducted by a panel of eminent persons and presented to the January 2008 AU summit . AfriMAP made a submission to the audit review, based on the findings and recommendations in the report Towards a People-Driven African Union and its other research and engagement with the debates around the proposed Union Government.
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AfriMAP: On not using indicators to score progress in governance
June 2007
This article describes the methodology and experience of AfriMAP, a project of the Open Society Institute’s network of African foundations, in working with civil society organisations in different African countries to carry out audits of government performance. It explains why AfriMAP has decided not to use its questionnaires as the basis for scoring countries on their performance, but rather focused on qualitative analysis. Finally it indicates which quantitative indicators are useful to AfriMAP, and what other indicators would be useful.
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Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities
AfriMAP, AFRODAD and Oxfam GB
January 2007
This report is the first independent, substantive and public assessment of the progress of the African Union. "Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities" analyses the preparations of African Union member-states, the AU Commission and civil society organisations for the twice-yearly AU summits.
The main finding is that despite some welcome new opportunities for participation, the African Union's vision of ‘an Africa driven by its own citizens’ remains largely unfulfilled. Detailed recommendations are offered to help deliver on this vision in future.
Published by AFRODAD, AfriMAP and Oxfam, this report is endorsed by more than a dozen other organisations in Africa and elsewhere, and is based on interviews with more than 50 representatives of member-states, the AU Commission and civil society organisations in eleven African countries.
The full report is available in English and French, and the findings and recommendations available as a stand-alone document in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic.
UPDATED VERSION, November 2007: Information on developments at the AU during 2007 has been included in an updated version of the full report (the findings and recommendations are not affected); the update is also available as a stand-alone download below after clicking on 'Download the report in sections & in other languages'.
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AU Symposium: ”Citizenship in Africa: Preventing Statelessness, Preventing Conflicts”, Nairobi / Kenya, 26-28 September 2012
28 September 2012
AfriMAP and the Open Society Foundations' AU advocacy office participated as resource people in a Symposium on citizenship in Africa hosted in Nairobi by the AU Commission Department of Political Affairs. Participants in the
meeting were members of citizenship directorates from ministries around the
continent, and the debate was substantive and constructive. The meeting made recommendations to member
states and the AUC that included to: Carry out a survey/census and develop
national plans to identify more...
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New study on the Regional Economic Communities
01 June 2012
AfriMAP attended the Regional Civil Society Networks Consultation held held in Abuja, Nigeria May 30 –June 1, 2012 by the Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union (CCP-AU). AfriMAP director Ozias Tungwarara made a presentation on a proposed guide to the three main regional economic communities (RECs) – ECOWAS, EAC and SADC. The meeting strongly supported the production of the guide and agreed that the initiative be a collaborative effort between regional CSO formations, CCP-AU more...
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Open Forum
06 May 2012
In May 2012, the Africa Foundations of the Open Society convened a forum to take a critical look at the factors that will influence the African democracy and governance agenda over the next decade, to debate the paradox of unequal growth and to turn innovative ideas into action that promotes real change. The three day event held at the Cape Town Convention Centre, featured artists and activist, politicians, academics, policy and law makers and media. AfriMAP organized two parallel more...
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Advocacy on the AU human rights strategy
14 April 2012
On 14th of April, AfriMAP, represented by Communications and Advocacy officer, Jeggan Grey-Johnson took part a validation workshop organized by the African Union Commission’s Political Affairs Division. The meeting focused on the draft Human Rights Strategy in Africa document. The meeting was attended by 20 participants from various other AU organs, CSOs and think tanks in Africa. The meeting focused on the framework of the strategy and proposed activities over a five year period. more...
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The African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights
03 April 2012
AfriMAP's Advocacy and Communications officer, Jeggan Grey-Johnson, attended the Civil Society Forum on 16th Of April ahead of the Commission’s 51st Ordinary Session. The themes included Gender and Electioneering, Access to Information and Freedom of Expression in Africa. AfriMAP presented the findings of its Public Broadcasting Media project in the countries where the study was completed. He stated that public broadcasting more...
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Africa Forum on Civil Society and governance Assessments
16 November 2011
UNDP in partnership with CIVICUS, CONCAD, Trust Africa and AGI organized a three day workshop themed: Africa Forum on Civil Society and governance Assessments. The meeting focused on civil society's involvement in governance assessments. The events presented the opportunity for development organizations, CSOs and research institutes to share knowledge and experiences so as to enhance greater participation in the policy dialogue debate. Jeggan Grey-Johnson presented a paper on strategies, challenges, more...
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African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights 30th anniversary conference
19 October 2011
AfriMAP's advocacy and communications officer, Jeggan Grey-Johnson, attended the ACHPR meetings in Banjul on 19th October, where the implementation of human rights instruments in Africa was a primary focus. The gathering also debated issues pertaining to the need for the Commission to take countries notorious for human rights violations to task. It was agreed to that the Commission needed to do more country focused resolutions. Issues of citizenship rights and racism featured prominently. The more...
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AfriMAP participates in African Union 2011 High Level Retreat in Cairo
04 September 2011
AfriMAP Director Ozias Tungwarara participated in the second AU high level retreat whose theme was strengthening political governance for peace, security and stability in Africa. Participants included former heads of state, senior government officials, senior AU officials, representatives of the UN and other multilateral institutions, diplomatic corps, representatives of civil society organizations, and parliamentarians. more...
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APRM: Taking Peer Learning to the Next Level
21 July 2010
AfriMAP, in partnership with SAIIA, the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA), the African Governance Institute (IAG-AGI) and Kituo Cha Katiba, co-hosted a workshop exploring civil society engagement with the process entitled "APRM: Taking Peer Learning to the Next Level" from 20-21 July 2010 in Kampala, in the margins of the AU summit. More than 100 participants from civil society, national governing councils, the APRM technical partner institutions more...
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Side-meeting on the right to a nationality at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
14 May 2010
On 14 May, the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI), the Open Society Institute's AfriMAP, AU Advocacy Programme and Justice Initiative, in collaboration with the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) hosted a discussion on on the right to a nationality in Africa and its impact on the enjoyment of other rights established by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The discussion was held in Banjul, the Gambia, and timed to coincide with the 47th Ordinary more...
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Workshop and launch of books on citizenship in Africa
October 2009
AfriMAP worked with its sister project the Open Society Justice Initiative and the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) to hold a two day workshop on the African Union mechanisms and protection of refugee, IDP and citizenship rights on 19-20 October 2009. The workshop was held in the margins of the AU special summit on Refugees, Returnees and IDPs, held in Kampala, Uganda, and participants discussed the lack of a right to nationality as both a cause and a consequence of forced displacement more...
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AfriMAP presentation on Joint Africa Europe Strategy- JAES
July 2009
In July, AfriMAP was invited to Brussels to present its recommendations for the implementation of the partnership on democratic governance and human rights under the Joint Africa Europe Strategy (JAES), which was adopted in Lisbon in 2007. The meeting highlighted issues of governance in Africa, focusing on human rights. Level of progress and challenges were discussed, which aimed at presenting greater clarity and gaining stronger commitment from the EU in its partnership with the AU. Additionally, more...
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Advocacy on EU-AU Relations
April 2009
AfriMAP has worked with the Open Society Institute’s Brussels office over the past few years on advocacy related to the European Union’s external relations with Africa, participating in meetings in Europe and Africa and contributing submissions in response to EU policy documents.
In February and April this year, Ozias Tungwarara, AfriMAP director, participated in two meetings in Dakar and Brussels on the APRM/AU governance architecture and its relation to the Joint Africa-Europe Strategy, more...
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Expert meeting on citizenship law in Africa
20 February 2009
AfriMAP is collaborating with the Open Society Institute’s Justice Initiative to produce a comparative study of citizenship law and discrimination in Africa. On 20 February, an expert meeting was held in London, attended by legal scholars and practitioners from Europe and Africa, at which the results of the research were presented and detailed contents of recommendations on the content of nationality laws discussed. Two documents will be published from the research later this year: a detailed monograph more...
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Maputo Conference on the APRM
22 October 2008
AfriMAP was cosponsor of a conference on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) held in Maputo, Mozambique, 21-22 October 2008. The meeting was organised by EISA, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, as the third symposium in its annual series. The aim of the symposium was to debate the successes and shortcomings of the APRM process so far, draw lessons for future participants in the APRM from early country experiences, and provide more...
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Broadcast media project meeting in Botswana
13 October 2008
On 13 October AfriMAP and OSI’s Media Program convened in Gaborone a meeting on the progress of a jointly run project focused on the state of public service broadcasting in Africa. The meeting gathered some 40 participants — representatives of the African foundations, two network programs and a number of partner organizations. The project includes 11 countries from West, East and Southern Africa; national researchers prepare their studies following the same methodology in each case. Following earlier more...
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AfriMAP submission to the APRM Secretariat on its review of procedures
December 2007
AfriMAP has sent a submission to the APRM Secretariat and Eminent Persons, with detailed recommendations on the contents of the APRM self-assessment questionnaire, as well as suggestions in relation to the process of implementing the APRM at national level, including access to information, participation, monitoring of the APRM results, and harmonisation with other processes. The submission -- which can be downloaded below -- is based on AfriMAP's engagement with and observation of the APRM in the more...
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Broadcast media survey launched
November 2007
Research has begun for a major new twelve-country survey of public service broadcasting in Africa jointly hosted by AfriMAP and the Open Society Institute’s Network Media Program (NMP). The survey will examine issues of impartiality, independence and quality in public service broadcasting (including not only the public service broadcaster but relevant private media), with a view to producing recommendations for better regulation of the sector, especially in the context of the expected digitalization more...
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AfriMAP submission to the Audit of the AU Institutions
24 October 2007
At the African Union summit held in Accra in July 2007 at which proposals for a Union Government were debated it was decided that a review of the performance of the existing AU institutions was needed. While 'all member states accept the United States of Africa as a common and desirable goal, the Executive Council agreed on the need for a pragmatic and progressive approach and recommended an audit of the state of the Union in order to identify areas in which significant improvement have to be made more...
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OECD World Forum on Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies
30 June 2007
Bronwen Manby, AfriMAP senior programme adviser, participated in the Second World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy organised by the OECD in Istanbul, Turkey, 27-30 June 2007. She participated in a panel with other members from India, China and Russia, and presented a paper on AfriMAP's research titled 'On Not Using Indicators to Score Progress in Governance'. The paper, which discusses the decision of AfriMAP not to use its reports on governance to score or rank African countries against more...
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UNECA workshop on the APRM
28 June 2007
Pascal Kambale, AfriMAP deputy director, participated in a workshop held in Douala, Cameroon, 25-28 June 2007, on the role of CSO organizations in the APRM process. The workshop was organized by the APRM Support Unit and the newly created Civil Society Unit of the Governance and Public Administration Division of the UN Economic Commission on Africa, and targeted civil society in French speaking countries. AfriMAP's reports on the APRM process in those countries (available more...
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AfriMAP co-hosts debates in Accra on the Union Government
24 June 2007
African leaders debated proposals for the rapid creation of a United States of Africa at the 9th Ordinary Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union that took place in Accra, Ghana, 1-2 July 2007. AfriMAP was one of the main sponsors of two fora that took place in advance of the summit, enabling civil society organizations to debate the proposal for a Union Government and provide input to what was termed the 'Grand Debate'.
The first was a one day roundtable during more...
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AfriMAP joins civil society submission to the Pan African Parliament
09 May 2007
Thirty African and international civil society organisations working in over twenty five African countries participated in the first Consultative Dialogue with the Pan African Parliament (PAP) under the theme "Building Effective Mechanisms for Civil Society Engagement with Pan African and Regional Institutions". The Consultative Dialogue provided an opportunity for civil society organisations to reflect on the proposal for Union Government to be discussed at the African Union Summit in July more...
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AU report launched in Senegal
06 April 2007
The report "Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities" was officially launched in Dakar, Senegal, 6 April 2007, at a ceremony organised by RADDHO, Oxfam GB/Senegal, and OSIWA. The report was presented to an audience of journalists, government officials and civil society representatives. A representative of the Minister for NEPAD, African Economic Integration and Good Governance was also present.
Ibrahima Kane, co-author of the report, presented an more...
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AfriMAP advocacy with the G8 and European Commission
April 2007
AfriMAP has entered into the debates around the development assistance strategies of the G8 and the European Union in relation to their engagement with the African Peer Review Mechanism and their efforts to support and promote good governance in African countries. A letter to the German G8 'sherpa', on Germany's presidency of the G8 in 2007, and a submission to the European Commission responding to the Commission's Communication on Governance in the European Consensus more...
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Monitoring African Governance Standards: Civil Society Event at the African Union Summit
June 2006
On 26-28 June 2006 the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA), The Open Society Justice Initiative, Afrimap, and Partnership Africa Canada held a civil society workshop in Banjul, the Gambia, in advance of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government. The workshop was convened to discuss ways of improving government compliance, and the capacity of civil society to ensure this compliance, with commitments made under African Union and international treaties.
The more...
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AfriMAP questionnaire development
2004
The three AfriMAP questionnaires have been developed through a process of wide-ranging reading and discussion, drawing on similar initatives and the knowlege and advice of African and international experts in the field. In each case, a focal point of discussion was a two-day workshop held in Johannesburg, attended by participants from the Open Society African foundations and experts on the three themes -- of access to justice, democracy or delivery of public services. Pictured are some of the participants more...
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Statelessness in Southern Africa 
