NEPAD/HSGIC-03-2003/APRM/Guideline/OSCI 9 March 2003 the improvement in governance and socio-economic development performance. In particular, participating countries will improve their self-reliance on and build capacity to manage their development and national economies. The intention is to learn by doing and to improve practice rapidly by sharing experience and best practice and finding solutions to common constraints. 6.3 The first cycle of the Peer Review process will enable participating countries to determine their initial baseline conditions, which will then become the baselines for the continental exercise, based on a careful review of each country’s assessment of its own situation and its time-bound Programme of Action for improving its governance and socio-economic development performance. 6.4 The intention is that the first APR report for a country will provide a basis for assisting the country in improving its Programme of Action and for strengthening its capacities to accelerate progress towards its vision of excellence in performance in the areas being reviewed. It is hoped that the report will also provide a basis for consolidating shared values and standards in these governance areas and accelerating socio-economic development in Africa, leading to more rapid poverty eradication and achievement of the objectives of NEPAD and Millennium Development Goals. 6.5 It is expected that country efforts will be enhanced and strengthened by the APR process and that, after the first review, countries will sustain their efforts to achieve the shared objectives identified in the APRM and their Programmes of Action. This will require updating these Programmes of Action on a regular basis on the basis of self-monitoring results of their own progress and lessons learned from sharing with other countries, which will be facilitated actively by the APRM. On the basis of these activities it is anticipated that they will be able to establish new benchmarks and targets each year in terms of such concepts as outlined here. Page 30 of 31