Country Self-Assessment Process

This is the most obvious, and indeed most critical area in which civil society (both organizations and individuals) has the opportunity to engage with the APRM process. Although methods will differ between different countries, based on that particular country's adopted plan of action for conducting its self-assessment, various core APRM documents, including the APRM: Organization and Process, the MOU on Technical Assessment and the Country Review Visit, and the APRM self-assessment master questionnaire document clearly state that broad and diverse civil society consultations are a requirement of the country's self-assessment process. Thus, although it is not possible here to state how these consultations might occur, what is clear is that there must be some effort on the part of the government and the national APR Focal Point to encourage engagement between themselves and civil society.

It is therefore essential that civil society is alert to developments in the country's self-assessment process, in particular:

• the date the government intends to launch the self-assessment process;
• at what stage the country's national governing body will be formed, and who will make-up the members of this body;
• at what stage submissions to the governing body must be made, and what form they are expected to take;
• the length of time the government expects the entire self-assessment process to take;
• at what stage the self-assessment report is to be reviewed in some form (normally this takes the form of a national stakeholder conference, but this is a convention, not a rule);
• at what stage the country will produce its final self-assessment report;
• when the Country Review Team are expected to undertake their official Review Mission; and
• at what stage the final draft Programme of Action and Country Report are due to be submitted to the APR Panel for consideration.

If in the opinion of a non-government stakeholder the government has not provided fair opportunity to all national stakeholders to make submissions and contributions to the country's national self-assessment, these complaints can be submitted either directly to the APR Secretariat in Midrand, South Africa, or can be raised during the visit of the country's APR Country Review Team. Based on the track record of both organizations thus far, the APRM structures take this type of engagement seriously, and are committed to encouraging all governments and national APR governing bodies to ensure that all possible measures are taken to engage with a broad and diverse number of national stakeholders during the country self-assessment process.