Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa will launch the fourth edition of the Africa Governance Report (AGR IV) on April 2, 2016, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The report, entitled "Measuring Corruption in Africa: the international dimension matters", argues that current approaches for measuring corruption are predominantly perception-based and completely ignore the international dimension of corruption in Africa. AGR IV also identifies week governance institutions as one of the main determinants of corruption. The report urges African countries, therefore, to engage in improving their own governance agenda rather than undertaking the futile exercise of naming and shaming one another because of the given perception levels of corruption.
Commenting on the report, ECA's executive secretary, Carlos Lopes said, "Many corrupt practices on the continent are generated and abetted by non-African players." Consequently, Lopes stated that the problem of measuring corruption in Africa needs deep reflection with special attention to the roles of international players.
AGR IV contains policy recommendations, categorized into four themes: enhancing ownership and participation in development planning; improving transparency and accountability; building credible governance institutions; and improving the regional and global governance architecture.
The launch of AGR IV falls during the week of the 9th Joint Annual ECA-AUC Conference of Ministers (CoM2016), also known as the Africa Development Week, taking place in Addis Ababa from March 31 to April 5 2016. This report comes two years after the launch of AGR III in June 2014, which tackled "Elections and the Management of Diversity."
