3 October 2008
Botswana continues to do well in major governance rankings when compared to most Sub-Saharan states.
But of late, the country has shown signs of losing a grip on some key governance attributes.
Last week the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) launched 'The State of Governance in Botswana 2004 and the Botswana Governance Assessments at Gaborone Sun.
These studies generally show that the country is losing its shine.
The governance assessment study, in particular, is revealing. The study was carried out between 1996 to 2007. BIDPA maintains that a meaningful comparison of progress of governance can only be made if a snapshot view is obtained over a number of years and comparing the medium to the long-term trends over several years. "Governance is a complex phenomenon and no single indicator can be precise or complete," BIDPA says.
In this case, a set of six indicators, known as the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), were used to arrive at the findings contained in the study.
These indicators are voice and accountability; political stability and absence of violence; government effectiveness; regulatory quality and regulations that permit and promote private sector development; rule of law and control of corruption.
In the region, Botswana's performance is ranked above average and the country is generally regarded as a star performer in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study however shows that Botswana's annual WGI performance has been uneven. In the period under study (1996-2007) only three indicators have shown growth.
Political stability has grown by 7.7 percent, government effectiveness by 6.2 percent and control of corruption is the highest at 10.3 percent.
In percentile terms, the rule of law remains stagnant. Indicators such as voice and accountability have shown a decline by a whopping 11.7 percent; regulatory quality also went down by 12.1 percent.
While these year-on-year results have not drastically affected Botswana's governance rankings, a scrutiny of each governance indicator reveals that the uneven pattern of performance has been accompanied by a general decline of the scores.The regulatory quality indicator, according to the report has been in decline since 2002. It fell to about 10 percent below the 1996 level in 2007. This was the lowest indicator in 2007.
"This performance decline is disturbing and worrying, it implies that Botswana may not retain its status as the shining example of good governance in Africa. One interpretation is that Botswana is becoming more similar to other low performing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, the status of Botswana as a shining example when compared to other African countries in terms of various measures of political, social and economic governance is becoming questionable.
This calls for close national introspection, to review policies, legal frameworks, institutions and their functioning, and to devise and adopt measures that may be implemented in order to keep the country at the top of the league in terms of political social and economic governance performance," the report says.
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