Africa’s “lost opportunity” in past decade deeply concerning: Mo Ibrahim

The 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) was launched on the 29th of October, 2018. IIAG is a tool that measures and monitors governance performance in African countries. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation under which The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership was launched has consistently shown its commitment towards leadership on the continent. The Ibrahim Prize comes with a $5 million reward for excellence in leadership in Africa.

Mo Ibrahim, Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said: “We welcome progress in Overall Governance, but the lost opportunity of the past decade is deeply concerning.  Africa has a huge challenge ahead. Its large and youthful potential workforce could transform the continent for the better, but this opportunity is close to being squandered. The evidence is clear – young citizens of Africa need hope, prospects and opportunities. Its leaders need to speed up job creation to sustain progress and stave off deterioration. The time to act is now.”

The Foundation define governance as the provision of the political, social and economic public goods that every citizen has the right to expect from their state, and that state has the responsibility to deliver. The Foundation stated: “Despite strong GDP growth over the last ten years, Africa has failed to generate economic opportunities for its booming youth population.”

IIAG scored countries in five categories: overall governance, safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development. The Foundation said: “Human Development is one of the bigger success stories of the 2018 IIAG, driven by improvements in Health; the stalling progress in Education seen in last year’s IIAG has now turned to decline.”

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In the safety and rule of law category, the first ten countries were Mauritius, Botswana, Namibia, Cabo Verde, Seychelles, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa and Malawi. Rwanda ranked 13th, Sierra Leone and Liberia ranked 20th and 21st respectively. Kenya ranked 27th just two countries above Niger Republic and Nigeria ranked 38th. The last five countries were Sudan, Libya, DRC, South Sudan and Somalia.

In the Participation and Human Rights category, the first ten countries were Mauritius, Cabo Verde, Namibia, South Africa, Ghana, Benin, Seychelles, Senegal, Tunisia, Burkina Faso. Cameroon ranked 39th, Kenya ranked 22nd, and Nigeria 24th. The Participation and Human Rights category measures civil and political rights and freedoms by assessing citizen participation in the political and electoral process, respect for basic rights, and the absence of gender discrimination.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame

In the Sustainable Economic Opportunity category, the top ten countries were Mauritius, Rwanda, Morocco, South Africa, Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia and Tunisia. Nigeria ranked at 29th as compared to Kenya that ranked at 8th and Rwanda at 2nd. This category measures the extent to which governments enable their citizens to pursue economic goals and provide the opportunity to prosper.

Read: Botswana has the best police force in Africa, Nigeria ranked the worst

In the Human Development category, the first ten countries were Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Algeria and Tunisia. Nigeria ranked 34th in this category, while Djibouti ranked 29th and Burundi 23rd. Zambia and Uganda both ranked at 21st. this category measures whether African governments provide poverty mitigation and alleviation, educational advancement, health care and sanitary services.

Rwanda ranked 1st in the transparency and accountability, rural sector, gender, and the business environment sub-categories. It also ranked 5th in health. Nigeria ranked 47th in health, 33rd in education and 47th in national security.While Rwanda has proven itself and continues to improve, countries such as Nigeria which should be performing better have performed dismally in many of the indicators recorded.