Considering its limited objectives, the report does not claim to provide a comprehensive account of the APRM‘s findings on each bottleneck in every APRM-participating country on the continent. Instead, the report attempts to provide an overview of the most important issues germane to each of the bottlenecks, often providing illustrations with the help of examples, and explores options to address them within the framework of the APRM. Limitations Each of the bottlenecks is highly critical to the development of Africa. In appreciation of that fact, these issues have received plenty of attention in the development policy literature over the past few decades. It is not the purpose of this report to produce yet another voluminous study on these issues. Instead, and as indicated above, the primary objective of this report is to explore the extent to which these bottlenecks have been addressed by the APRM tools and processes and what more can be done to better equip the APRM to deal with them more systematically and comprehensively throughout the peer review chain of activities. In this sense, the scope of the report is consciously restricted to an examination of these otherwise broad issues with an APRM lens. Structure of the report The discussion under each bottleneck is structured as follows: first, it attempts to interpret, understand, conceptualise and explain what each bottleneck is about. It is worth noting at this stage that a number of proposals were made to revise the heading of each bottleneck to make them reflect their contents better. However, after a serious consideration, we chose to stick to the original headings for the bottlenecks and to provide commentary under the respective sections to give the clearest possible picture of what each bottleneck is about. Secondly, it asks what, if any, the APRM does today about each bottleneck. And, thirdly, it asks what – or what more – can be done about each bottleneck within the context of the APRM and how we can do it. This three-level structure thus forms our analytical framework for the entire study. Findings The study finds that while the APRM offers a sound methodology and framework to achieve its goals, its full actualisation requires a number of small but collectively significant reforms. Particularly on the 13 bottlenecks, while the APRM country review reports touch on virtually all of them, it is also true that they address some bottlenecks more fully than others. The specifics may be summarised under each bottleneck as follows. Bottleneck 1: Ideological Disorientation Ideological disorientation is here understood to mean discrimination based essentially on three characteristics of the human person: ethnic or tribal origin, religious belief, or gender. What has been called ideological disorientation here is therefore essentially about societal divisions and chauvinism. Understood in this form, ideological disorientation has been a widespread challenge in Africa since the end of colonialism. The APRM deals with ideological disorientation at length and creates a solid basis for informed societal conversation around it. The APRM record on this bottleneck is a strong one. At the same time, a revamped APRM process can still add value in at least three ways: (i) the analysis and recommendations in reviewed countries can be made more precise and specific; (ii) the APRM could assist in developing quantitative measurement techniques in this area; and (iii) APRM institutions should consciously reflect on the ideological assumptions in operation when they undertake reviews. Bottleneck 2: Interference with the private sector Despite the importance of a robust domestic private sector to the continent‘s future, private sector development has not received the political or public attention it deserves. The APRM can do more in this area in at least three ways: (i) by helping to fill information gaps, such as on harassment of the private sector; (ii) by conducting an in-depth assessment of one or two of the most severe challenges faced by the private sector and drawing a list of recommended actions and best practices for consideration by Member States; and (iii) by serving as a forum for the private sector to voice its concerns to government in a more targeted and focused fashion. Bottleneck 3: Under-developed infrastructure That infrastructure is critical for development is beyond cavil. The APRM deals with it in its self-assessment questionnaire and the country review reports also address it extensively. For example, poor infrastructure is listed as a hindrance to business in most of the reports. However, while infrastructure financing remains an important hurdle for Africa, an even more daunting challenge relates to lack of institutional capacity to conduct proper needs assessment, to prepare and evaluate bids, and the widespread curse of corruption in the infrastructure project value chain – for all of which the APRM can make significant further contribution. The APRM could, for example, (i) start treating infrastructure as a challenge in itself that 8