Date :

05 June 2009

This workshop which was held in collaboration with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). The workshop was attended by 35 delegates representing key organisations and partners. The main objective of the workshop was to exchange knowledge in terms of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process as a unique African instrument of good governance. The workshop provided an opportunity for Government, the APRM Secretariat, academics and civil society to share ideas on how to successfully implement and enhance the APRM process.  Expectation of this workshop was based on four aspects that could lead to the strengthening of the APRM: Creating linkages with other African Union institutions e.g. the Pan-African Parliament, the Commission, NEPAD process, etc; A greater focus on the implementation process; The identification of cross-cutting issues; and Sharing of experiences. It is planned that a follow up series will be held.

The APRM was introduced through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and accepted by the member states of the African Union (AU) as an African self-monitoring mechanism. The AU Summit in Durban in 2002 adopted the APRM as an instrument that will be voluntarily acceded to by AU member states for the purpose of self-monitoring, aimed at fostering the adoption of policies, standards and practices that will lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional integration in the continent. The mandate of the APRM is to encourage participating states in ensuring that the policies and practices of participating states conform to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards, and to achieve mutually agreed objectives in socio-economic development contained in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.  At the AU Summit in Sharm el Sheikh in July 2009, Togo became the 29th member state to accede to the APRM.  This represents more than three-quarters of the countries in Africa. The first sets of reviews have been completed in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Algeria, Benin, Uganda, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.  Country-review missions were completed in Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania in the second half of 2009, with the possible scheduling of these countries for peer review by July 2009.  Five countries have submitted their first annual implementation reports (South Africa, Ghana, Kenya , Rwanda  and Algeria).

i) The SASAS Steering Committee workshop 8 June 2010 at Villa Sterne, Pretoria

The African Social Attitude Survey (SASAS) is a flagship project of the Knowledge Systems Unit of the HSRC. It is a nationally representative survey that has been conducted annually by the HSRC since 2003 and is increasingly providing a unique, long-term account of the direction of change in public values in South Africa. SASAS represents a notable tool for monitoring social, economic and political values among South Africans. Results emanating from the first seven rounds of the survey (2003-2009) have been cited and discussed in the local print media and on radio, and policy makers are increasingly quoting SASAS results. In order to enrich the project it was decided to appoint a SASAS steering committee consisting of eminent social scientists to steer SASAS in virtuous directions, influencing key decisions & assist SASAS with key challenges.

ii) Forthcoming: Professor Bernard M. Magubane at 80: the celebration of a life, towards a Festschrift

The forthcoming Festchrift that is planned to take place at the HSRC with the launch at Freedom Park, The event takes place from 26 – 29 August 2010. Alternate years, the HSRC hosts a conference in collaboration with the Social Sciences Network of South Africa. A proposed 2010 combined HSRC/SSNSA conference will combine personal celebration of Professor Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane (who will be 80 years old) with a much wider and deeper engagement with other African knowledge producers.

The narratives and traditions that scholars such as Professor Magubane bring to the table are fundamental to the nation-building project in South African and the construction of a genuinely South African intellectual community. Intellectual communities are constructed around iconic individuals, events and ideas. Professor Magubane represents such an individual, whose ideas represent a dimension of the multifaceted premise for constructing such intellectual community. However, it is in the celebration of the wider of fellow scholar-activists, embedded in the national liberation agenda that the works of Professor Magubane find their meaning and relevance.  The event is also an aspect of the nation-building project and the construction of an alternative intellectual community, in consonance with the South African Constitution (1996).

iii) Bid document for the 2012 ISSC World Social Science Forum

A proposal was submitted was a joint proposal submitted to the Executive Committee of the International Social Science Council (ISSC) on 28 October 2009 by the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in conjunction with the University of Johannesburg [located in Gauteng province] and the University of Fort Hare [located in the Eastern Cape province] to host the WSSF III during July 2015 in Gauteng province, South Africa. Gauteng province is a city region and the location of four of the six largest universities in South Africa – University of South Africa, University of Witwaterand, University of Pretoria, and University of Johannesburg; in addition to be the headquarters of the HSRC. WSSF II is planned to take place in 2012 in China.  WSSF III claims to bring together prominent scholars and central actors from the global research community whilst building upon the principal objectives of CODESRIA which include the facilitation of multidisciplinary research, the promotion of research-based publishing, the building of capacity amongst African researchers at all levels through a strong training programme, the promotion of the principle of academic freedom, and the creation of multiple for a for the exchange of views and information amongst African researchers, and the strengthening of South-South and North-South research collaborative networks.