She was speaking at the second consultative conference on the country’s self-monitoring process in terms of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
South Africa is one of the 24 countries on the continent that has subscribed to be reviewed through the APRM.
The conference, which is being held at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown, seeks to give all stakeholders, including civil society, NGOs, research institutions, parliamentarians and other representatives a chance to have a final look into the draft report for adoption.
Fraser-Moleketi expressed her gratitude to the interest showed and contributions made by civil society and the people at grassroots level.
She further complimented the Community Development Workers (CDWs) for their efforts in gathering submissions from ordinary people in all the provinces, saying it had helped a lot in collating the final draft.
“We received exciting submissions from all the stakeholders including from people at community level.
“Almost 65% of submissions in the draft report on socio-economic development come from the civil society and those ordinary people who were approached by the Community Development Workers,” explained Fraser-Moleketi.
Although the Minister noted that much of the submissions suggested that the country was doing well in many areas, “socio-economic development was a major challenge to all South Africans, especially those worst affected by poverty”.
The final draft report currently under scrutiny is a product of a string of consultative seminars held since last year to April this year, between government, technical support agencies and CDWs who were responsible for gathering the information.
The Technical Support Agencies included the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) which focused on democracy and good political governance, the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), focusing on economic governance and management, the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC) focusing on corporate governance and the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI), which focused on socio-economic development.
The local APRM National Governing Council (NGC), headed by Ms Fraser-Moleketi, has since appointed about 20 research organisations to help with research work and to participate in the seminars.
The NGC comprises five ministers and ten members from various civil society structures in the country.
The Minister confirmed that the final report on the country’s Programme of Action would be finalised and adopted at the end of the conference tomorrow.
She however could not say if the draft Country’s Self-Assessment Report would be finalised at the end of this conference but noted that the final report would be submitted to the APRM Secretariat in June.
Fraser-Moleketi said, once adopted and approved, the final self-assessment report would be sent to the APRM panel of eminent persons.
The Panel would then submit it to the African Union Assembly of Heads of State for scrutiny.
The Minister expressed confidence in the submissions saying they reflected positively about the country “and it shows that the country is on the right track”.
“The goal of the APRM, for all of Africa, is to help Africans help themselves. To show ourselves and the world we are not part of those whose mindset assumes that we need external assistance in order to grow,” said Fraser-Moleketi– BuaNews
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