The Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness is an exercise in mutual accountability undertaken jointly by the UNECA and the OECD following a request of NEPAD Heads of State and Government in 2003. Its purpose is to assess what has been done by Africa and its development partners to deliver commitments in relation to the continent’s development, what results have been achieved, and what the key future priorities are. It complements the self-assessments produced by each side to the partnership and looks at commitments made by political leaders collectively, rather than national governments individually. In doing so, it attempts to look at overall performance, recognizing however, that within this there is a large degree of variation and diversity between countries.

This is the fifth edition of the MRDE report, following the publication of earlier editions in 2005; 2009; 2010 and 2011. The 2012 report follows the same structure as previous reports and is accordingly organized around four broad policy areas: sustainable economic growth, investing in people, good governance, and financing for development.