Evaluate how effectively two states responded to the challenges they faced in the first 10 years of independence.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the responses of two states to the challenges they faced in their first ten years of independence, weighing up the strengths and limitations of those responses. The two states may or may not be from the same region and the periods evaluated may or may not be contemporaneous with each other. The long-term effects of the responses discussed may extend (briefly) beyond 2000, but they must be clearly linked to challenges that occurred within the timeframe. A comparative approach may or may not be used. Candidates may refer to attempts to establish political systems and achieve political stability, facilitating social unification, addressing economic problems or encouraging economic development, resolving territorial conflicts and developing foreign policy.