Governance and Public Administration Division (GPAD) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) organized a one-day External Peer Review Meeting on Diversity Management in Africa, at the United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the 8^th of March 2011.

ECA has undertaken a study to produce a report on diversity management entitled “Findings from the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and a Framework for Analysis and Policy Making”. The main purpose of the Synthesis Report is to use the findings of the existing thirteen(13) APRM Country Reports as a point of departure in identifying the main challenges confronting African states in managing diversity as a governance challenge and identifying the best practices within Africa for the purpose of improving governance.

The existing APRM Country Reports provided a conceptual diagnosis of diversity management and also wealth of knowledge of challenges, ideal types, experiences and reasons for successes and failures confronting African countries, and lessons accruing from best practices on the continent. In this regard, the paper reviewed thoroughly the relevant sections of the existing APRM CRR focusing on “issues” of diversity management and the implication for policy analysis and formulation.

The objective of this external peer review meeting was to provide selected African experts, who have the expertise on APRM and issues of diversity management in Africa, an opportunity to review the strategic and scholarly focus of the research, validate its empirical and analytical findings and make substantive inputs aimed at improving both the quality and policy relevance of the Synthesis Report.

In order to have the report be peer reviewed by external bodies, ECA organized this meeting, by bringing together high caliber African scholars and experts in the field, in order to give an opportunity to review the strategic and scholarly focus of the research, validate its empirical and analytical findings and make substantive inputs aimed at improving both the quality and policy relevance of the Synthesis Report.

This approach allowed the group of African scholars to comment on the paper and give their contributions to its finalization and will also help the Synthesis Report to be finalized.

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