9 October 2008
Maputo — Mozambique has been ranked 22nd out of 48 countries in this year's edition of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which is the same ranking that it held last year,
This index is published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and describes itself as "a new, comprehensive ranking of sub-Saharan African nations according to governance quality".
It looks at 57 separate criteria, which are supposed to "capture the quality of services provided to citizens by governments". The criteria are divided into five categories, namely: safety and security; rule of law, transparency and corruption; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity; and human development.
The data used come from 2006, which the Foundation regards as the latest year for which there is reasonably complete information for the entire continent.
The scores range from zero to 100. On the Ibrahim ranking, the best governed country is Mauritius, with a score of 85.1, followed by Seychelles (79.8), Cape Verde (74.7), Botswana (74), and South Africa (71.5). Thus four out of the five best governed countries on the continent are from the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Region.
At the other end of the scale the worst governed country is the one that has no functioning government at all, Somalia, with a score of 18.9. Runners-up in infamy are the Democratic Republic of Congo (29.8), Chad (33.7) and Sudan (34.2).
Mozambique's score has improved slightly, from 55.8 in the 2007 edition of the index, to 57.1 now. The country scores highly for safety and security with 86.1 out of 100, which makes it the eighth safest country in Africa. But the countries considered safest on the continent, with the perfect score of 100, are Cape Verde, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. Also remarkably safe, considering its violent history, is Rwanda, with a score of 98.4.
The most insecure places are Sudan (29), Somalia (38.8), and Central African Republic (46.7). South Africa's crime rate ensures that it is among the ten worst countries in this category, with a score of 61.1.
Mozambique's score has risen in the rule of law and corruption category, from 46.6 to 50.4, while falling back very slightly in terms of respect for human rights, from 70.5 to 70.4. 17 countries are considered to have a better human rights and participation record than Mozambique.
In the final two categories, Mozambique's score improves slightly - rising from 35.4 to 36.7 in terms of sustainable economic opportunity, and from 41.5 to 41.7 for human development.
The countries regarded as most lawless or corrupt are Somalia (8.2), DR Congo (24.3), Liberia (26.8), Sierra Leone (37.3) and Angola (38.4). The highest scores in this category are held by Cape Verde (86.1), Botswana (81.6) and Mauritius (80.5).
The scores and rankings for all members of SADC are as follows:
Country Overall Score Overall rank
Mauritius 85.1 1 Seychelles 79.8 2 Botswana 74.0 4 South Africa 71.5 5 Namibia 70.9 6 Malawi 63.9 11 Lesotho 63.3 12 Tanzania 61.6 15 Madagascar 60.4 16 Zambia 58.3 21 Mozambique 57.1 22 Zimbabwe 50.4 33 Swaziland 50.2 34 Angola 43.3 44 D.R. Congo 29.8 47
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