An increasing need exists for country-led governance assessments in Africa. Accelerated direct budget support and rising aid targeted to governance as a sector are placing more pressure on governments to produce better governance monitoring data. In addition, internal pressure is rising, as are demands by citizens to learn more about how their governments are performing.

 

In response to this growing need, the African continent has become the home of a plethora of innovative local solutions for measuring governance. Such home-grown solutions have developed from the realization that many global initiatives for measuring governance are inadequate both in terms of capturing governance challenges as well as governance achievements within Africa. Global governance measuring initiatives also may be inadequate for providing internal incentives and political pressure to reform.

 

These pages seek to provide guidance on many of these existing initiatives for measuring democratic governance in Africa. They will offer guidance to existing data, overcoming particular regional challenges, as well as to the methodology and process of conducting a governance assessment.

 

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) constitutes a special case. Five African countries have now completed their APRM reviews, and 22 others have signed up for the process.

 

The guidance offered here seeks to complement the work of the APRM. In countries where the APRM is taking place, additional, specific and smaller-scale assessments conducted by civil society or governments may serve as enhancements. In countries that do not subscribe to the APRM process, smaller-scale and specific assessments may provide alternative solutions.