issues facing countries in these services sectors and much of the remaining challenge is about policy implementation. However, immense opportunities still exist for the APRM to contribute towards addressing the implementation challenges by fostering cross-border collaboration, mutual learning, and harmonisation of policies, regulations and institutional structures and processes among its Member States. Bottleneck 10: Non-responsive civil service An efficient civil service is a critical – perhaps the critical – component of effective governance. The civil service has the enormous responsibility to ensure the day-to-day implementation of laws, regulations and policies in all areas of public life. The civil service is also the primary interface between the state and society at large. Indeed, the success of such ambitious African and global programmes as Agenda 2063 and SDGs in the Continent depend significantly on the capacity of the civil service in each country to develop implementation modalities and execute them within a set timeframe. The APRM reports have consistently highlighted the major problems confronting the civil service, but the APRM could still add value by, e.g. (i) devoting more attention to identifying success stories and disseminating their example; (ii) The APRM needs to include, in its list of relevant standards and codes, the African Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration, which was adopted by the 16th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly on 31 January 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and (iii) Considering that the Charter has just entered into force with 16 ratifications, the APRM may consider launching a campaign to encourage more countries to ratify the Charter as part of its sensitisation efforts to enhance the development of a responsive civil service on the Continent. Bottleneck 11: Attacks on democracy and governance One of the more profound changes in Africa since the 1990s has been the holding of elections as a means of choosing governments. Encouraging democracy was intrinsic to the NEPAD initiative. Democratisation was seen as vitally important and a critical marker of the continent‘s determination to deal with its governance problems. Above all, democratisation signified an opportunity for Africa‘s people to become citizens rather than subjects, to take charge of their own destinies, rather than having them dictated to by those in power. On these issues, the APRM country review reports are detailed and for the most part quite forthright. As democratisation and constitutionalism touch on the exercise of power, they are sensitive political issues, and it is to the APRM‘s great credit that it has been willing and able to probe them and point out weaknesses. The APRM should continue to do so without fear or favour. However, the APR Forum needs to perform its oversight function and ensure that agreed recommendations from the review process are carried out. Bottleneck 12: Domestic resource mobilisation Funding Africa‘s development has always been a hotly contested point. Its reliance on foreign development partners has raised questions about the extent to which the continent is in control of its development agenda. It has also been argued that a reliance on external funding has broken the chain of accountability that ought to run between citizens and states. Another concern has been whether the continent‘s pubic purses are benefiting from the wealth created through its natural resource endowments. This issue finds little direct expression in the APRM, although the question of resource mobilisation is addressed in the EGM thematic area. Considering the limited engagement of the APRM in this area, perhaps the APRM‘s utility as a research tool could be put to better use in this respect. The body of knowledge on the state of resource contracts and resource governance is incomplete, and the APRM could play a valuable role in collating country level information. This would include the provisions of contracts, how they are operating in reality, and evaluating whether they are developmentally appropriate. Given that managing resources is an issue common to the continent, this is an area where information sharing could be of inestimable benefit. Understanding best practices and mutual alignment of investment codes and incentives (in the context of regional integration) should receive attention. Bottleneck 13: Structural inequalities in access to opportunities While African societies may be afflicted by particular developmental challenges, those challenges are not evenly distributed within those societies. Particular groups, however these may be defined, will be harder hit by poverty and will have access to fewer opportunities. Ensuring that these differences do not manifest themselves as permanent blockages to mobility for the relatively less wealthy is a dimension of development that needs to be addressed. The focus here is on socio-economic status and the desire to ensure one‘s birth does not dictate one‘s destiny in life. But, this aspect of development, often known as social mobility, is not well covered in the APRM country review reports, at least not directly. Yet plenty of information has been collected in the APRM process that helps to explain the continent‘s deficiencies in this regard. This is an important issue for Africa and the APRM should make an effort to more systematically and explicitly integrate this issue into its work. 10