The Strategic Plan Development Process 8. The Committee considered the Strategic Plan in depth, provided detailed guidance for its further enhancement and endorsed it unanimously. Finally, a revised version of the Strategic Plan that incorporated the feedback and guidance from this Committee was presented to the 77th meeting of the APRM Panel and the special meeting of the national organs that was held in Johannesburg from 20–23 May 2016. After it went through all these processes, revisions and refinements the Strategic Plan was presented before the Committee of Focal Points and the APRM Forum at their meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2016. The APRM is at a turning point in its history. On 29 January 2016, the Forum, under the leadership of H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta, held a special summit dedicated to the revitalisation of the APRM. The Forum appointed a fully-fledged CEO, the first permanent CEO in over seven years, and deliberated on the challenges of revitalisation in six key priority areas: (i) Revisiting the philosophy of the APRM; (ii) Revising the review methodology; (iii) Ensuring compliance with APRM principles; The Necessity for Revitalisation (iv) Resource Mobilisation; 11. As noted earlier, the Strategic Plan is based on the three pillars of the turnaround strategy as championed by the APRM CEO. The three pillars are Restoration, Reinvigoration and Renewal. The Restoration pillar focuses on addressing the immediate challenges faced by the Mechanism including: (v) Integration of the APRM into the AU system; and (vi) The role of the APRM in monitoring of AU agenda 2063 and the post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs). 9. The Strategic Plan 2016–2020, which is based on a three-pronged revitalisation programme for restoration, reinvigoration and renewal of the APRM, is guided by the deliberations and instructions from the Special Summit and draws further inspiration from the original vision and mission, values and guiding principles of the APRM while taking into account the new and emerging realities on the Continent, including the AU Shared Values and Agenda 2063, as well as the UN 2030 SDGs. The Strategic Plan starts with a baseline survey of where the APRM is today, its strengths and weaknesses, and identifies operational priorities, methods and implementation modalities for the next five years. (i) Development and implementation of the 2016 Work Plan; (ii) Ensuring compliance with APRM principles; (iii) Resource Mobilisation; and (iv) Integration of the APRM into the AU system. 12. The Reinvigoration pillar consists of repositioning, re-energising and intensifying commitment to APRM's mandate. The major focus will be on repositioning the APRM, in collaboration with other institutions, as one of the mechanisms for monitoring and supporting attainment of the AU Agenda 2063 and the global 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063, the APRM is expected to contribute to the goals relating to the adoption of democratic values, practices, universal principles of human rights, justice and the rule of law, as well as the creation of capable institutions and transformational leadership. 10. The development of this Strategic Plan has gone through a number of stages. First, internal working documents were prepared and debated within the APRM Secretariat. Second, those ideas were presented at the expert meeting held in Addis Ababa from 29–30 March 2016 which focused on the turnaround aspect of the strategy. Third, once a decision to develop a five-year strategic plan was taken, a detailed and more comprehensive draft Strategic Plan was presented and further refined at an internal APRM staff retreat organised specifically for this purpose and with generous help from experts from the strategic planning department of the AU Commission. Fourth, the final draft Strategic Plan was presented to the Revitalisation Committee meeting convened by Kenya from 9–10 May 2016. 13. The Renewal pillar includes the review, refinement and further development of APRM tools and processes, including its research and information gathering instruments for drafting the Country SelfAssessment Report. The Renewal phase will also include re-imagining the philosophy behind the APRM so as to ensure the Mechanism stays relevant in a changing world. –2–