Mo Ibrahim: Africa’s good governance index

Not a single year goes by without international organizations or civil society hitting the news for creating new indexes to classify the state of human development or world corruption. We have become used to tearing our hair out over the pages of the annual UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) report or weeping over Unicef’s reports on the state of the world’s children. But no one has bothered to enlighten us on a parameter that is not very attractive for the mass-media, but very important for any government trying to fight poverty.

It is called “good governance”. Without it, continents like Africa are condemned to an endless underdevelopment. For this reason, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation – established b

y the British millionaire of Sudanese origin Mo Ibrahim – decided to create an ad hoc classification called, needless to say, the “Ibrahim Index of Good Governance”. For the first 2008 edition, the foundation reports that, after the “unlucky” ‘90s, scarred by war and widespread corruption, good governance is showing clear signs of recovery in many African countries. “The new figures”, assures Mo Ibrahim, during the report presentation in Addis Abeba on October 6 , “show that two thirds of sub-Saharan African countries have improved their performance between 2005 and 2006. The sectors where progress is most evident are those that concern the participation of citizens to public life and human rights”.

The Index of Good Governance is drafted according to 57 criteria (divided into five categories: security, transparency and corruption; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunities; and human development). The Mauritius Islands are on top of the classification (85.1 out of 100), whereas war and political disorders push Somalia to the last place with just 18.9 out of 100. As a matter of fact, all the Horn of Africa is in crisis because it is “the only African region where no progress has been observed”. Eritrea and Ethiopia, countries where border tensions have been going on for more than ten years, should follow Liberia’s example: it was able to recover from a bloodthirsty civil war and achieved “the most progress between 2005-2006”.

Moreover the Mo Ibrahim Foundation has also set up a 5 million dollar award for the African leader that has distinguished himself for his good governance capacity.

One of the merits of the Ibrahim Index of Good Governance is that it allows foreign investors to gather an even clearer picture of which African countries offer the best business opportunities.

On a completely different note Ibrahim Mo hopes that civil society will use thesefigures to ask their leaders to account for and take into consideration good governance policies.

Find out more: www.moibrahimfoundation.org