This year’s Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa: Promise & Performance highlights the significant progress on the part of African governments and their international partners in delivering their commitments to improve political and economic governance, increase domestic resource mobilisation as well as human development dimensions.

The annual Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness in Africa (MRDE) is a joint exercise in mutual accountability undertaken by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The exercise dates from an initial request in November 2002 by the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee which underscored the need for a mutual review of development partners in terms of their commitments to Africa. Africa’s Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development reaffirmed the value of the exercise in March 2012.

The 2015 MRDE edition was launched at the African Economic Conference in Kinshasa 2-4 November 2015.

The MRDE reports provide an in-depth review of the implementation of commitments in 19 individual topics organised around four broad pillars:

• sustainable economic growth (industry, trade, agriculture, infrastructure, the private sector, environmental sustainability and climate change);

• human development (education, health, food security and gender equality);

• good governance (political governance, economic governance and peace and security);

• financing for development (domestic public resources, foreign direct investment, development assistance, external debt and climate finance).

Under each topic, the report addresses 4 questions:

i) what are the main commitments by Africa and its partners;

ii) have these been delivered;

iii) what results were achieved; and

iv) what are the key future policy priorities.

The report focuses on commitments made by political leaders collectively as distinct from national governments individually. The approach is to look at overall performance, recognising that there is large degree of variation between individual countries.

Key features of the report include:

• strong ownership by African leaders;

• joint character (undertaken by the ECA and OECD);

• comprehensive coverage;

• symmetry (by reviewing commitments by both Africa and its partners);

• strong evidence base ( relying heavily on use of empirical data);

• linkages between delivery, effectiveness, and future priorities;

• accessibility (report is concise and its written style is accessible to both senior policy makers and a wider audience);

• established track record as a report commanding confidence and support of all parties.