EXECUTIVE SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________________ chapters assess the achievements and major challenges in the four focus areas of the APRM: democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance, and socioeconomic development. Chapter Seven analyses the overarching issues identified as crucial with regard to their impact on governance in the country, and the immediate and urgent attention they require. The report ends with a general conclusion. 1.1 Implementation of the APRM process in Burkina Faso 1.5 Burkina Faso signed the MOU on 20 March 2003. After adhering to the APRM, Burkina Faso appointed a focal point, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and African Integration. After a few periods of slow activity, the APRM resumed its normal operations following the two presidential decrees of 25 May 2007. They established the NC-APRM and a permanent secretariat to provide it with technical and administrative support. It comprised 28 members from the different sectors of Burkinabe society. These included 14 from public institutions (government and Parliament), four from the private sector (employer organisations and independent economic operators), and nine from civil society. The NC-APRM is chaired by the principal secretary of the head of state. 1.6 The self-assessment exercise would not have succeeded without the support of competent, integrated and credible technical institutions. In October 2007, the NC-APRM contacted the INSD, the Higher Institute of Population Sciences (ISSP), the Centre for Democratic Governance (CGD) and the Centre for Economic and Social Policy Analysis (CAPES). These institutions have been mandated to deal respectively with corporate governance, socioeconomic development, democratic and political governance, and economic governance and management. 1.7 Professor Mohammed Seghir Babès, a member of the APR Panel of Eminent Persons, headed the exercise in Burkina. He led a delegation of six persons on a mission of support to implement the assessment process between 19 and 22 June 2006. 1.8 On 10 and 11 January 2008, the draft national self-assessment report was submitted for validation to nearly 200 national and local stakeholders from state and other structures. A national programme of action for each of the APRM focus areas was proposed. It intended, on one hand, to consolidate the achievements made and existing good practices and, on the other, to take up the challenges identified in areas of serious weakness. 1.2 The CRM 1.9 The CRM was jointly conducted by Professor Mohammed Seghir Babès and Mrs Marie-Angélique Savané, both members of the APR Panel of Eminent Persons, between 18 February and 16 March 2008. Burkina Faso thus became 2