3. BACKGROUND The APRM is a voluntary instrument of the African Union (AU) with the objective of fostering the adoption of policies, standards and practices that will lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional and economic integration. This is achieved through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful best practices, including identifying deficiencies, and assessing the needs for capacity building of participating countries. Assessment under the APRM is conducted within four thematic focus areas; Democracy and Political Governance; Economic Governance and Management; Corporate Governance and Socio-economic Development. South Africa is amongst the first thirty countries that have voluntarily acceded to the APRM process. Acceding to the process entails undertaking to submit to periodic peer reviews and commitment to implementing the NPoA arising from the Country Review process. The country was peer reviewed in 2007 resulting in a Country Review Report (CRR) that included an NPoA. 21