Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

Mozambique: Country Falls in African Governance Index

Mo Ibrahim, the founder and chair of the foundation at the news conference. The foundation is committed to supporting African leadership that will improve the economic and social prospects of the people of Africa.(PHOTO ESSAY: Release of the African Governance Index 2009 )

London — Mozambique has fallen in rank from 22nd to 26th out of 53 countries in this year's Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

The 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".

The Index "uses indicators across four main categories: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development as proxies for the quality of the processes and outcomes of governance".

It looks at 84 different criteria divided into four main categories and 13 sub-categories. The indicators that make up the sub-categories are based either on official data or expert assessment. The data comes from both 2007and 2008.

Mauritius comes top of the index with 82.83 points out of 100, followed by Cape Verde (78.01), Seychelles (77.13), Botswana (73.59) and South Africa (69.44).

According to the index, the worst governed country in Africa is Somalia (15.24), followed by Chad (29.86), Zimbabwe (31.29) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (33.25).

Mozambique's score fell from 53.79 in last year's index to 52.38 this year.

Within the Southern African region Mozambique is ranked ninth.

Mozambique scored well above the continental average in the categories of Safety and Rule of Law, and Participation and Human Rights. However, it scored just above the average in Sustainable Economic Opportunity and fell below the continental average in Human Development.

According to Mo Ibrahim, the founder and Chairman of the Foundation "the 2009 Ibrahim Index gives us the clearest - and most current - snapshot of governance performance on the continent we have ever had. With Southern Africa outperforming North Africa, we can see a picture emerging that fundamentally challenges our perceptions about Africa. Our objective is to generate debate about what we can expect our governments to deliver in our name."


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