The 2012 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) has revealed that governance in Africa has improved since 2000, but the story is different for Nigeria, as it has descended to the “bottom ten governance performers on the continent.”
The report, which was released yesterday, also cited South Africa, Kenya and Egypt as three other African regional powerhouses showing unfavourable governance performance since 2006. Over the past four years, all four countries have declined in two of the four main IIAG categories – Safety and Rule of Law and Participation and Human rights.
Each of these four countries deteriorated the most in the Participation sub-category, which assesses the extent to which citizens have the freedom to participate in the political process. South Africa and Kenya have also registered declines in Sustainable Economic Opportunity. And Nigeria, West Africa’s powerhouse, has for the first time this year fallen into the bottom ten governance performers on the continent.
Abdoulie Janneh, former Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa and Board Member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said: “Given the vast natural and human resources of these four regional powers, these governance results are a concern. Each of these countries plays a key role in the economic and political landscape of the continent. To continue to optimally play this role requires a sustained commitment to balanced and equitable governance.”
Mixed regional trends
While West, Central and Southern Africa are slowly improving their overall governance scores, both North Africa and East Africa have registered declines. East Africa has now been overtaken by West Africa in the category of Sustainable Economic Opportunity. Two of the anchor countries of East Africa – Kenya and Uganda – have demonstrated deteriorations in Sustainable Economic Opportunity, dragging down the regional trends.
The importance of ‘balance’
Overall, since 2006, the strongest continental performances are registered in the categories of Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development, where there have been improvements in all sub-categories. Meanwhile, the categories of Safety & Rule of Law and Participation & Human Rights have registered declines, mainly due to regressions in three sub-categories: Rule of Law, Personal Safety and Rights.
This imbalance of governance performance between the four main categories of the IIAG was highlighted in the previous two editions of the IIAG, when Egypt, Libya and Tunisia stood out as cases in point. This characteristic, which appears across the continent, remains a concern.
Over the last six years, almost half (21) of the 52 African countries register increased imbalance between the four categories. The 2012 IIAG shows that five of the six most imbalanced countries belong to North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Not only does North Africa remain the most imbalanced region in Africa, it has also experienced the greatest regional governance deterioration since 2006. Contrary to the other four regions, North Africa is the only one that has deteriorated in the sub-categories of National Security, Public Management and Infrastructure.
Mo Ibrahim, Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said: “It is encouraging to note that the Millennium Development Goals have contributed to the improvement of all 52 countries in the Human Development category since 2000. But the post-MDG framework now has the potential to make similar improvements across the full package of goods and services that all citizens have the right to expect, and that governments have the responsibility to deliver.”
SOURCE: 16 October 2012.
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