The Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) was established in early 2004 to monitor the compliance of member states of the African Union (AU) with the standards that the AU has adopted in relation to good governance, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. AfriMAP is an initiative of the Soros Foundation Network's four African foundations, and was established in response in particular to the AU's implementation of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). It seeks to promote African organisations' engagement with and participation in the APRM and other AU processes, in order to increase the democratic accountability of the continental government structures.

AfriMAP works with the OSI Africa foundations and national partners to conduct in-depth research and qualitative reporting on three themes: justice sector and the rule of law; democracy and political participation; and effective delivery of public services. Research follows a standardised questionnaire, whose content was developed in workshops with African experts and is based on AU and other legal standards and recognised best practices. The reports thus contain information that is comparable from country to country, while the judgments made are rooted in documents to which AU member states have subscribed. Each report includes a 'discussion paper' which draws out some of the key themes and recommendations arising from the reports for advocacy purposes.

AfriMAP is currently working in five countries - Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and South Africa and expects to expand to others (including Zambia, Lesotho, DRC and Benin) during 2007. A workshop to launch the Kenya process was held in Nairobi at the end of April 2007. Countries have been chosen in consultation with the OSI Africa foundations.

During 2006, reports on the justice sector were launched in South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi, at events that brought in a wide range of national stakeholders. Working with OSISA and OSF-South Africa, follow up advocacy will be carried out in each country. The South Africa report on political participation has been completed and will be launched in June 2007. Reports on the justice sector and on political participation in Ghana will be launched at the end of June 2007 at the African Union summit to be held in Accra. Other reports on our first five countries are at varying degrees of finalisation with most due for completion in the second half of 2007.

As the project develops across more countries, AfriMAP may produce cross-country thematic reports identifying common problems and possible solutions (in the first instance, each report is per-theme and per-country). In this way, we will create a substantial body of source material for education and research about human rights, the rule of law, participation in democratic processes, and good governance.

All AfriMAP's research is carried out by national partners, usually existing grantees of the Africa foundations. AfriMAP and the foundations have put in a great deal of effort into ensuring that the research and reporting process has genuine national ownership. Extensive consultations with important national stakeholders during the preparatory phase and several round table workshops at which the reports' findings are discussed have ensured buy-in and participation by national actors. This commitment to process means that the time frame for production of reports is approximately two years per country, longer than expected at the outset. Follow up advocacy is developed in conjunction with the foundations, and the reports are also used to guide foundation grant-making. Published reports are being distributed widely to libraries and to institutions working on similar themes. One of their primary audiences is also the APRM process in each country, whether to feed into the preparation of the self-assessment reports that are prepared at country level, provide independent information to the APRM secretariat, or critique and enrich the programmes of action that are the ultimate product of peer review.

AfriMAP is also monitoring the APRM's own country reviews, which got underway at around the same time as AfriMAP, and has commissioned reviews of the national surveys in Rwanda, Kenya, Mauritius and Ghana from national participants in those processes. The Rwanda report was launched in early 2007. The Kenya report was launched at the end of April 2007. The Mauritius report will be launched when the APRM review in Mauritius, which is stalled, is itself restarted, expected shortly. A Ghana report should be ready for launch by the AU summit in June. AfriMAP is working with the OSI Africa foundations to use these reports and AfriMAP's own audits to promote national civil society participation in the APRM self-assessments.

AfriMAP is also promoting civil society engagement with the AU more generally, outside the APRM structures; this focus fits closely with AfriMAP's other work on monitoring standards, given the important standard-setting exercises that are taking place at African continental level, with minimal consultation on their content. At the Banjul summit of the AU in June 2006, AfriMAP worked with the Banjul-based Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Partnership Africa Canada to host a successful meeting on civil society governance monitoring of AU standards. A communiqué adopted by the meeting was presented at a press conference at the AU summit venue. In another effort to strengthen civil society engagement with the AU, AfriMAP joined together with Oxfam GB and AFRODAD (the African Network on Debt and Development) to publish a report on civil society access to AU summit decision-making processes. The report, which is the only public document providing information for African organisations on how the AU actually works and how states prepare for AU meetings, was launched during the January 2007 AU summit. A practical 'how to' guide based on this report and aimed at civil society organisations wishing to lobby the AU, has been finalised in draft form and will be launched either at the Accra AU summit in June/July 2007, or later in the year, to take account of decisions made in Accra. AfriMAP will support a roundtable discussion during the Accra summit on the ambitious proposal to establish an African Union government. Papers that provide analysis of the proposal have been commissioned as part of civil society contribution to the debate and will be published in advance of the summit.

During 2007, AfriMAP will begin a major new joint project with the Network Media Program that will report on issues related to the regulation of broadcast media in Africa. We have just completed a hiring process for the project manager for this research, who will be based in South Africa.

AfriMAP's competitive calls for papers, of which the winning submissions are published on our website, have brought in interesting contributions from students based across the continent, so far focusing on traditional justice, political participation and gender, and the new African Charter on Democracy Elections and Governance.

The director of AfriMAP is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Currently, one staff person is based in the London office of OSF. In addition to general involvement in the work of AfriMAP, the London office has been involved in advocacy with European donors working on governance issues, including the European Commission and DFID.

More information can be found on the website www.afrimap.org, where a library database is also being developed, searchable by country and keyword, to act as a resource on the themes of good governance, democracy, rule of law and human rights in Africa.