allAfrica.com
6 October 2008
The quality of governance improved in nearly two-thirds of sub-Saharan African nations between 2005 and 2006. Liberia showed the biggest leap in government performance in the period, while Mauritania deteriorated the most.
These were among the principal findings of the 2008 survey of African governance, published in Addis Ababa on Monday by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the organization founded by African telecommunication pioneer Mo Ibrahim to promote better government in the continent.
The survey ranked Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana and South Africa the best-governed countries on the continent – although South Africa falls near the bottom of the "safety and security" rankings as the seventh most dangerous country.
The five worst-governed countries were Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan and Angola.
The survey, entitled the "Ibrahim Index of African Governance," is produced by a team from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the United States, supported by an advisory council of African academics and corporate leaders.
Photo Essay:
It ranks African countries using 57 criteria in five categories: safety and security (assessing the effects of conflict and violent crime); the rule of law, transparency and corruption; participation and human rights (which examines the freedom to vote and respect for press freedom and other rights); sustainable economic opportunity; and human development (which considers poverty levels, health and education provision).
Compared to last year's survey, 31 countries improved their governance scores. The five countries which improved the most were, in order of performance, Liberia, Burundi, Uganda, Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar. Governance deteriorated the most in Mauritania, Chad, Somalia, São Tomé and Príncip and Gambia.
Although Nigeria registered a slight improvement in score, it slipped one place – from the 38th best-governed country to the 39th. Kenya's score dropped and it slipped two places – from 15th to 17th.
Mauritania dropped 11 places in the rankings, Gambia seven and Guinea six places. Uganda and Burundi went up by eight places, Guinea-Bissau by seven places and Liberia by six places.
The area of governance which showed the biggest improvement across the continent was "participation and human rights," where 29 countries showed progress.
In a statement issued with the results, Mo Ibrahim said that despite some of the headlines of recent months, "the real story coming out of Africa is that governance performance across a large majority of African countries is improving… I hope these results will be used as a tool by Africa's citizens to hold their governments to account…"
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
I have never ever read an honest African voice that strikes on the right note on African issues like the voice of Mo Ibrahim. Africa has had very spirited articulators, enthusiatic leaders, warm philantrophist, but Mo Ibrahim is a great and practical African patriot with profound moral insight. He doesn't just possess the capacity to perceive the true nature of Africa' problems, he has an incredible pool of practical solutions to those problems. He has the potential to be the architect of a modern Africa and i hope he has a strong voice in the AU summits.
I Totally agree with Mr.Ibrahim,though my feeling is that we need as Africans to facilitate social integration so as to get rid of the biases that have brought about suspicion amongst us,only then can we begin to achieve effective Economic Integration. There is also need for us to strengthen the existing regional blocks in Africa afterwhich we can talk about an all Africa integration process.
This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.
Africa has no "economic future" until it has "consumer demand" for its products.
In my view, the Mo Ibrahim's Index is missing a critical data, the "EDUCATION LEVEL" of the Heads of State. It is not a surprise that, overall, the Presidents of the best-governed are more educated than their counterparts of the worst-governed nations. Most people seem to accept the notion that better governance is associated with a higher or lower degree of formal education achieved by the Head of State of each country.
See all comments (14).
Active Discussions: Indices of African Governance