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HSRC Annual Report 2016/17
African Peer ReviewMechanism (APRM) – Kenya Pre-Mission Project
In 2016, the APRM commissioned the DGSD research team to provide research support for its planned pre-mission
exercise in Kenya. The pre-mission exercise is a new stage, introduced to the APRM’s review process, which now involves
the following stages:
APRM – Kenya Pre-mission Project
Country self-assessment
The African country that has acceded to the APRM assesses itself in
four key areas
of governance, namely
political, economic,
corporate and socio-economic
Pre-mission exercise
Aimed at reducing the number of matters to be dealt with during the
detailed mission exercise
Mission exercise
The APRM Secretariat reviews the applicant’s self-assessment report
During the pre-mission exercise, the research team developed the methodology for that phase; assisted the APRMwith
the development and administration of an online survey; developed an interview schedule for interviews conducted
in Kenya during the pre-mission exercise; and analysed the results of these research exercises to develop a core set of
issues that still needed to be dealt with during the mission exercise that followed later in the year.
The project gave the research team the opportunity to review a country’s political, social and economic systems. It also
had a major impact on shaping the subsequent Kenya Mission exercise of the APRM by streamlining the number of
issues to be reviewed, identifying sources of data, and feeding the interview schedule developed for this stage, resulting
in one of the best reports ever developed by the APRM. An unprecedented four-hour discussion of the Kenya Mission
Report by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union followed in January 2017, and a decision
was taken to broaden the role of the mechanism in the AU structure as a whole.
Citizen Frontline Service Delivery Project
This project was conducted in collaboration with the City of Cape Town to:
•
Contribute to the improvement of service delivery through fruitful and sustained citizen engagement;
•
Facilitate community partnering to improve service provision and maintenance; and
•
Increase city staff participation in citizen/community engagement to improve the reliability and continuity of water
and electricity services.
The study employed a community score card as a participatory tool to assess, plan, monitor and evaluate services.
The methodology is structured to generate information through municipal/citizen interactions; promote immediate
response and joint decision-making through mutual dialogue between users and providers; and can be followed by
joint monitoring.