African Union In terms of the survey, standard survey tools e.g. Household Survey, Expert Panel; Focus Group Discussions may be used. (Please refer to the Research Protocol Instrument accompanying this questionnaire for more information on the common APRM Survey tools). In preparing the research tool and the compilation of the final responses, careful attention should be paid to the guidance notes to be found below each objective and assessment area. Each TRI is then required to collate the responses received for their thematic area and to compile the technical report for that area. In this regard, it is important that prior to beginning the process of compilation for the TRIs to agree on the format for compiling the report and the treatment of crosscutting issues. This thematic technical reports should then be collated into a consolidated country self assessment report under the guidance of the NGC. In this regard special attention should be paid to prioritization of key governance challenges on the whole and in each thematic area. It is important that the reports are not bulky and are user friendly. Countries are also encouraged to flesh out their best practices. Validation Validation is the process of ensuring that most stakeholders broadly agree as to the outcome of the self assessment and that the key governance issues identified are those that are of general and common concern. This is achieved through a careful selection of a set of indicators that can adequately provide, collectively, a satisfactory measure of the concept. The validation of the instrument prepared by the consultants has to be carried out at national level in order to find out if the instruments' options were properly worded and exhaustive, if concepts and questions had sufficient clarity, and if the instructions were adequate. In addition, the Pre-test is expected to reveal if there were any problems with the translations to local languages, the presentation and/or administration of the research instruments, and to test how long it would take to provide responses to all items in the instruments (The APRM Research Protocol Provides more information on Validation). 4