Governance Progress in Africa stalling, reports Mo Ibrahim Foundation 2015 IIAG

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation:

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), launched on Monday 5, October, 2015 indicated that  over  the  last  four  years,  governance   progress  in  Africa  has  stalled,  and  revealed  a  shifting landscape.  During  the  period  2011-14,  the  African  average  overall  governance  score  in  the  IIAG increased   only   slightly   by   +0.2   points   to   50.1   (out   of   100.0),   with   considerable   changes   in performance during the last four years at all levels of the Index, both at country and at category level.

Published  annually,  the IIAG provides  a comprehensive  assessment  of governance  performance  for each  of  the  54  African  countries.  The  2015  IIAG  consists  of  93  indicators  which  fall  into  four categories: Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.

Twenty-one   countries,   including   five   of  the   top   ten,   have   deteriorated   in   overall   governance performance since 2011. Only six countries register an improvement across each of the four categories of the IIAG: Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

At the regional level, the continental  trend in overall governance  masks varying performances  and a widening  range  between  the regions.  Southern  Africa  remains  the best  performing  region,  with  an average  score  of  58.9,  followed  by  West  Africa  (52.4),  North  Africa  (51.2)  and  East  Africa  (44.3). Central Africa is the lowest ranking region with an average score of 40.9, and is the only region to have deteriorated since 2011.

The marginal improvement  in overall governance  at the continental  level is underpinned  by positive performances in only two categories, Human Development (+1.2) and Participation & Human Rights (+0.7).  Both  Sustainable   Economic   Opportunity   (-0.7)  and  Safety  &  Rule  of  Law  (-0.3)  have deteriorated.

Mo Ibrahim, Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, says: “While Africans overall are certainly healthier and live in more democratic societies than 15 years ago, the 2015 IIAG shows that recent progress in other key areas on the continent has either stalled or reversed, and that some key countries seem to be faltering. This is a warning sign for all of us. Only shared and sustained improvements across all areas of governance will deliver the future that Africans deserve and demand.”

Key findings of the IIAG 2015 include:

• The African average score for overall governance in 2014 is 50.1, a slight improvement since 2011 (+0.2). Over the last four years, only half of the top ten governance performers managed to improve their overall governance score, and 21 of the 54 countries have deteriorated.

• The Sustainable Economic Opportunity category exhibits both the lowest continental average score (43.2) and the largest performance drop since 2011 (-0.7). Sustainable Economic Opportunity includes the most deteriorated sub-category in the IIAG since 2011, Business Environment (-2.5). This sub-category includes the most deteriorated indicator in the IIAG over this time period, Soundness of Banks (-11.0).

• Among the generally negative trend of the Sustainable Economic Opportunity category, four countries, Morocco (+11.2), Togo (+9.5), Kenya (+5.9) and Democratic Republic of Congo (+5.4), exhibit impressive gains of more than +5.0 points.

• The  overall  governance  score  range  between  the  best  regional  performer,  SouthernAfrica, and the poorest regional performer,  Central Africa, is more than 18.1 points in 2014. This has widened by +1.7 points since 2011.

• With a 79.9 score for overall governance in 2014, Mauritius stands over 70 points higher than the continent’s weakest governance performer, Somalia, which achieved a score of 8.5.

• The top  three  countries,   Mauritius,   Cabo  Verde  and  Botswana,   all  exhibit  a decline  in overall  governance  and in at least two of the four components  over the last four years, calling into question whether these countries will continue to dominate the top of the rankings in future.

• The bottom  three  countries   in  overall  governance   are  Central  African  Republic (24.9), South Sudan (19.9) and Somalia  (8.5). Two of these, South Sudan (-9.6) and Central African Republic  (-8.4), have also registered  the most extreme  deteriorations,  along with Mali (-8.1).

• The top ten improvers in overall governance over the last four years represent almost a quarter of the continent’s population. Five of these countries, Senegal (9th), Kenya (14th), Morocco (16th) Rwanda (11th) and Tunisia (8th), already rank in the top 20 of the IIAG, leading to the question of whether they might become the continent’s next powerhouses.

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To Download the Executive Summary, Data Portal and other documents relating to the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Click Here.

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