EXECUTIVE SUMMARY industrialised countries; the involvement of Muslim religious authorities in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the National Economic and Social Pact, and so forth. 3.5 Overarching issues 3.62 Overarching issues are general issues which, despite having been treated under a particular section, cut across the other thematic areas and require a holistic approach in one or more countries assessed by the ARPM. In the context of these reports, these issues are: constraints to the reform and modernisation of the state; corruption; gender equality; youth employment; and territorial development, issues common to all governance programmes in Algeria. 3.5.1 Reform and modernisation of the state 3.63 The modernisation of the state is one of the major challenges of the 21st century, as is evident from the impressive array of ongoing reforms. However, plans to create a mature, politically strong and fully modern state, which is open to the region so that it may assume the leadership to which it is entitled, have frequently been slowed down and impeded by various factors. 3.64 The authorities are well aware of this, hence the scope and scale of the reforms over the past years. Three groups of reforms have been launched pertaining to: (i) the organisation of the state and the redefinition of its functions, the judicial and prison systems, the public service, administrative and financial decentralisation, and deconcentration; (ii) the macro-economic framework, with the main goals of speeding up liberal economic reforms, stimulating growth and development, and association with the European Union (EU) and the WTO; and (iii) society in all its multiple facets, in conjunction with public policies and sustainable socio-economic development. 3.65 The extent to which the modernisation being targeted through these reforms succeeds depends on how contradictions that cut across Algerian society are resolved. The problem, therefore, becomes one of the pace and modality of the reforms, the guarantee of the “modernisation” of the state and society. The CRM examined three approaches that are not mutually exclusive: (i) A first approach is to prioritise reforms, e.g. should priority be given to institutions and structures over government standards and policies, or vice versa? (ii) A second area concerns the pace of reforms. They should be intensified in accordance with the priorities identified so as to ensure greater transparency of the ongoing process. (iii) A third approach has to do with the modalities of reform, because the procedures implemented will succeed only insofar as they are relevant. It is therefore urgent that such reforms focus on the participatory approach that should underpin future decision-making rather than on the issue of enlightened and visionary “leadership”. 3.66 It is only by fulfilling these preconditions and achieving a “change in mentalities” that the Algerian nation, which has sacrificed so much in order to 20