Mandate of the APRM

The APRM's mandate is to foster practices and policies in the participating states that conform to the standards laid out in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

The APRM assumes that enhancing a country's governance standards and practices has a positive effect on that country's economic growth, social development and regional and continental integration. However, the APRM has also been tied to some future aid packages from donor states, and as a result offers additional incentives to those states that voluntarily accede to the APRM process.

The APRM assumes that those states which volunteer do so with the intention of being open and transparent about the governance challenges that they face, as well as their intentions for joining the APRM.

The APRM is aimed at influencing a country's governance standards and practices through the sharing of knowledge and best practices between its member states. With this in mind, the APRM identifies four key governance clusters:

1. Democracy and Good Political Governance;
2. Economic Governance;
3. Corporate Governance;
4. Socio-Economic Development.

The APRM is not designed to be a punitive body for those states that do not conform to specified standards or codes.