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There is a deliberate change in the thrust of the new Bureau of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), from merely activity-based reporting to results-based reporting, Chief Fortune Charumbira, the President of the African union’s legislative organ has said.
The President of the Pan-African Parliament made the remarks while delivering a performance review report of the PAP from January to October 2022 today in Johannesburg.
“There is now a deliberate change in the thrust of your new Bureau, from merely activity-based reporting to results-based reporting. This explains why we have changed even the title of this report from an Activity Report to a Performance Review Report. In this new dispensation, we are deliberately moving away from counting the number of bees that visit the flowers to focusing on the number of bees that actually produce the nectar. We are moving away from the common mistake of conflating activities with results.
“As Kusek and Rist rightly put it, if we are able to demonstrate the results of the work that the Pan African Parliament is doing, we will certainly win the support of the African citizenry. You will all agree with me that the public perception of the Pan African Parliament and, indeed, the AU and the majority of its Organs has been negative and unflattering for quite some time,” Hon Charumbira said.
He alluded to an article posted on the africareport.com website on 2nd August 2022, Francois Soudan that says, “When Africans are asked about the usefulness of the AU, the judgement is still harsh. Many see it as an ineffective organisation, which has not solved any of the problems for which it was created and whose objective is to outlast them.”
Zeroing in on the Pan African Parliament, the writer contends that the public has a very low opinion of the PAP which is supposed to represent the AU’s consultative assembly as it is “plagued by internal conflicts and accusations of mismanagement.”
Chief Charumbira called for a paradigm shift since one of their own, the AUC Commission Chairperson, His Excellency, Mr. Musa Faki Mahamat, in his official opening address during the June elective session said, “The Pan African Parliament is performing below expectations.”
Doubtless, Chief Charumbira said there is some element of truth in this stinging criticism which is a serious indictment of the institution and the entire AU machinery that cannot be ignored.
However, he feels that if PAP’s work impacts the lives of the citizenry in a palpable and meaningful manner, the perception of the public with respect to the Pan African Parliament can be changed.
The PAP Boss said the envisaged transformation begins with understanding MPs’ roles and functions within the wider continental governance matrix.
In that regard, he re-emphasized the functions of the Pan-African Parliament as espoused in Articles 3, 11 and 18 of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing The African Economic Community Relating to The Pan-African Parliament (PAP Protocol) and Rule 4 of the Rules of Procedure of the Pan-African Parliament. The functions of the PAP are to:
- Facilitate the implementation of the policies, objectives and programmes of the African Union and oversee their effective implementation by the various organs of the Union;
- Promote human and peoples’ rights, consolidate democratic institutions and the democratic culture, good governance, transparency and the rule of law by all Organs of the Union, Regional Economic Communities and Member States;
- Participate in creating awareness among the peoples of Africa on:
- the objectives, policies, aims and programmes of the African Union;
- the strengthening of continental solidarity, cooperation and development;
- the promotion of peace, security and stability on the African Continent, and;
- the necessity for the pursuit of a common economic recovery strategy;
- Contribute to the harmonization and coordination of the legislative texts of Member States in accordance with Article 11 (3) of the Protocol;
- Promote the coordination of the policies, measures, programmes and activities of Regional Economic Communities and their respective Legislative Bodies;
- Draft, examine and adopt its budget, its Rules of Procedure, elect its members of the Bureau, employ and manage its staff, in conformity with Article 11 (2) and (8) of the Protocol;
- Examine and debate the Budget of the African Union and make recommendations thereon prior to its approval by the Assembly
He said the Performance Review Report, therefore, is intended to present to the plenary, the activities undertaken by the PAP since the elective session in June 2022, the results achieved as well as challenges faced by the institution in the execution of its responsibilities. The results are anchored on the four thematic objectives of the Pan-African Parliament 2019-2023 Strategic Plan which include:
- Strengthening parliamentary functions of the Pan-African Parliament;
- Strengthening partnership, coordination, outreach, and institutional capacity of the Pan-African Parliament;
- Promoting the Pan-African Parliament’s support of human rights and social inclusion goals of the African Union; and,
- Strengthening learning and sharing, knowledge management, communication, and advocacy of the Pan-African Parliament.