Governance improving in Africa-monitor reveals

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

October 7, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — Index of African governance released by London-based, governance monitor, Mo Ibrahim foundation, revealed that most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have approved good governance during the past year.

“Africa is making progress,” said Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim, who started the index in 2007. He noted that 31 countries improved from last year’s index.

“New data shows that two-thirds of sub-Saharan African countries have improved governance performances. Thirty-one out of 48 countries have recorded an improvement,” Mo Ibrahim on Monday announced at a press conference in Addis Ababa.”

“Obscured by many of the headlines of the past few months, the real story coming out of Africa is that governance performance across a large majority of African countries is improving,” he said.

Africa’s small island nations have swept the top rankings, with Mauritius placed at top with 85.1 points out of 100,followed by the Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana and South Africa

“I hope these results will be used as a tool by African civil society to hold their governments to account.” He added.

Despite the gains, some countries including most Horn of Africa nations have gone down. it was indicated.

“The Horn of Africa was the only region to see an average decrease in score during this period,” the report said, with Ethiopia dropping one place, primarily because of its human rights record.

War torn Somalia, which has not had an effective central government since 1991, has twice come in last in the index.

The ranking was made based on 57 criteria including security, crime, corruption, women’s rights, inflation, health and education.

The report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said that respect for human rights and political participation also had vastly improved in Africa.

It singled out Liberia as having achieved the most progress over the past year to rank 38th in the index.

“More sub-Saharan African countries than ever are holding democratic elections, and I am hopeful that this will help form the platform for continued progress across the continent,” said Mary Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and member of the Mo Ibrahim prize committee.

Ibrahim also awards an outstanding African leader each year with a prize of $5 million, spread over 10 Years after leaving office

(ST)