4 THE AFRICA GOVERNANCE REPORT 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. During the 28th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held on the 30-31 January 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Member States of the Union (hereinafter Member States) resolved in its decision Assembly/AU/Dec. 631(XXVIII) to seize the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) with the responsibility to “play a monitoring and evaluation role for the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030”. Subsequently, the African Governance Architecture (AGA) Platform Retreat of March 2018 agreed on a work plan and strategic framework that identified priorities for 2018. The APRM was identified as the lead institution for the preparation of the Africa Governance Report (AGR). The Assembly at its 11th Extraordinary Summit in November 2018 reaffirmed the need to strengthen the capacity of the APRM to deliver on its expanded mandate and enhance its functional autonomy, including developing a report on the state of governance in Africa in collaboration with the AGA. It also requested the APRM to present an update on the state of governance in Africa report to the 32nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly scheduled to take place in February 2019. 2. The AGR assesses the state of governance in Africa with a view to providing Member States with a comprehensive baseline to assist governments to enhance governance. Whilst there already exist assessment reports on the state of governance in Africa that are publicly available in public discourse, these reports have largely been developed by multilateral organisations and independent thinktanks across the continent and abroad. The AGR is commissioned by the Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government. 3. The imperative for the development of an African-generated governance report is three-fold: first, this home-grown report is consistent with previous decisions of the AU Assembly to take control of its own development agenda and accountability