ECA Launches Africa Governance Report IV On Measuring Corruption in Africa

UNECA
Namibian Minister of Finance Calle Schlettwein, launching the Africa Governance Report IV, during the African Development Week in Addis.
2 April 2016
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

Addis Ababa — The Economic Commission for Africa has today launched its fourth Africa Governance Report (AGR IV) titled, "Measuring Corruption in Africa: the international dimension matters."

The report argues that existing measures of corruption are predominantly perception-based, and that they ignore the international dimension of corruption. AGR IV also notes that alternative non-perception-based methods of measuring corruption remain inadequately developed, but calls on African countries to adopt approaches that are fact-based and built on more objective and quantitative criteria.

Speaking at the launch, Namibia's minister of finance, Calle Schlettwein said, "Current indices on corruption do not present a reliable picture of the situation in Africa." Schlettwein praised ECA for devoting efforts, time and resources to AGR IV, which he described as "An important report on corruption."

This edition of the Africa Governance Report questions the credibility and reliability of corruption indices that focus on country ranking or naming and shaming, but offer minimal policy insights and practical recommendations to inform policy reforms.

During the launch, ECA's director for macroeconomics policy, Adam Elhiraika, stated that the problem of corruption in Africa cannot be solved solely by Africans. "To combat corruption, Africa needs good governance institutions and policies that are not exclusively domestic-oriented, since corruption in the continent is not exclusively the making of Africans."

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 this report is part of activities marking 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. AGR IV comes two years after the launch of AGR III in June 2014, which tackled "Elections and the Management of Diversity."

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