Toward a Well-Governed Africa 2

Bayo Iribhogbe Gathering 310, 2009 Oil on canvas 76 cm x 46 cm © Courtesy of the artist Bayostudio.com Toward a well-governed Africa 2 A democratic, prosperous, and peaceful Africa is now within sight. Mo Ibrahim Africa is blessed with an abundance of resources, of law and from economic opportunity to physical both natural and human. The governance chal- security. It is worth noting that in measuring out- lenge is to harness these resources to transform the comes for citizens, we make no distinction whether living standards of people across the continent. services are delivered by governments, the private It is for this reason that I launched the Mo Ibrahim sector, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Foundation in 2006. We aim to stimulate debate about governance in Africa and to foster excellence This, then, is our definition of good governance: the in African leadership. Our core initiatives include successful delivery, by government or nonstate the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a compre- actors, of those public goods and services that citi- hensive ranking of African countries according zens have a right to expect. By producing a robust, to governance quality. The index was designed as a data-driven analysis to measure progress against tool to help civil society and government monitor this definition, we help citizens enter into a more national progress. constructive dialogue with the leadership and governments to assess their own performance more The premise behind our work is an acute aware- accurately. Encouragingly, our index has shown a ness of Africa’s potential: a youthful population, broad upward trend in governance performance 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves, and since its inception, so we can confidently assert that a wealth of renewable-energy sources. Yet we con- governance in Africa is improving. tinue to underperform and fail to realize our potential. The lack of development progress during Producing this annual index is a challenge, given the the past 50 years can be attributed only to a fail- weakness of most national statistical offices in ure of governance and leadership on our continent. Africa. For example, we were forced to drop poverty indicators from our index because the available What Africa requires is excellent leadership that can data did not meet our reliability criteria. This problem entrench good governance at an institutional raises some interesting questions. How do you level. This goal requires a broader conception of manage a developing country without reliable pov- good governance, which moves beyond the tra- erty data? How do you track progress toward the ditional emphasis on elections and legitimacy to United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, an understanding of the components of a well- the first of which is a pledge to halve extreme governed society. The index currently aggregates poverty? We are working with other stakeholders to more than 80 outcome-oriented indicators; the begin solving this data problem, but any solution foundation looks at the on-the-ground reality for will be slow and costly. citizens rather than at governments’ claims, intentions, or spending. Moreover, citizens’ experi- In addition to tracking the progress of govern- ences are assessed across the fullest range of ments, we recognize excellence in African leader- public goods and services—from human devel- ship by offering an annual prize for exceptional per- opment (poverty, health, education) to the rule formance in office. The Ibrahim Prize for Achieve- 3 June 2010 ment in African Leadership is awarded to an African on the solid foundations of his predecessors’ work executive head of state or government who has when Botswana’s HIV prevalence rate was among been elected democratically and leaves office within the world’s highest, demonstrated how natural the constitutionally mandated term. resources can be a blessing to Africa instead of a curse. His work since leaving office has continued Our first three laureates—Joaquim Chissano to focus on HIV/AIDS and on the governance of (Mozambique, 2007), Festus Mogae (Botswana, natural resources, and he is one of the UN secretary- 2008), and Nelson Mandela (South Africa, general’s special envoys on climate change. The honorary)—exemplify the kind of leadership that career of President Mandela is well known to all. Africa is capable of producing. President ChissanoQ3 20 1spent0 his term in office negotiating a The achievements of these men, in the most chal- peaceful settlement to Mozambique’s long-running lenging of circumstances, are too often over- Mo Ibrahim conflict and then initiating the process of shadowed by the continent’s leadership failures, reconciliationExhibit 1 andof 1reconstruction. His time which meant that African presidents became syno- sinceGlance: leaving The office Ibrahim has been Index dedicated of toAfrican medi- Governancenymous in the is media a comprehensive with despotism. It is impor- atingranking conflicts, of governance including those qualityin northern designed Uganda totant, monitor however, each to understand country’s the politicalprogress context. and Madagascar. President Mogae, building Most African countries gained independence at toward good governance. Exhibit title: Ibrahim Index of African Governance Ibrahim Index of African Governance: Safety and rule of law, Ibrahim Index of African Governance, selected country’s rank on a country’s rank on a scale scaleof 1 ofto 1100, to 100, where where 100 100 is is the the bestbest possiblepossible score score (selected countries named) 100 Cape Verde Mauritius 90 Botswana Namibia 80 South Africa Lesotho 70 Tanzania Mali Rwanda Sechelles 60 Nigeria Ghana Egypt Morocco Liberia Somalia 50 Benin São Tomé and Príncipe Sudan 40 Congo 30 Chad 20 Zimbabwe 10 0 Countries in order of rank Source: Mo Ibrahim Foundation Source: Mo Ibrahim Foundation Toward a well-governed Africa 4 the peak of the Cold War—a devastating concurrence. community-based organizations. At independence, While African political institutions were still all African governments held a monopoly over weak, the colonial norms of autocratic leadership broadcast media. Today the situation has completely still prevailed, and the values of citizenship had changed. Almost every nation in Africa has pri- not yet been established. Furthermore, leaders were vate media organizations, and laws governing free- courted by superpowers engaged in a quest for dom of the press and freedom of expression have both resources and strategic allies. This exacerbated been written into the majority of African constitu- Africa’s “big man” culture and allowed corruption tions. The Democratic Republic of the Congo to flourish. The inevitable cost of that ideologically has over 150 private commercial radio stations. oriented external support was a failure to develop institutions, infrastructure, and the economy, as The unprecedented growth of community organi- well as the tragic loss of millions of African lives. zations has educated citizens about their rights and responsibilities and mobilized civil society to It is no coincidence that from 1989 onward, Africa demand more accountable government. Afro- has experienced its most significant period of barometer, an African-led opinion-polling initiative, political liberalization since the independence move- recently found that in the 19 countries where ments of the 1960s. Between 1989 and 1991, it conducts surveys, 65 percent of the respondents more than 20 countries encouraged greater politi- reported attending community meetings and cal participation by changing their constitutions 55 percent were active in joining with others to raise or political practices. In the absence of the cor- issues. Afrobarometer also found that 70 percent rosive influence of the superpowers, the continent of Africans support democracy and that 62 percent has been given another chance to build its insti- believe they should question leaders’ actions. tutions and develop. What’s more, the past decade has seen mobile tele- The first decade of the present century saw the phony revolutionize Africa. By 2009, there were creation of the African Union (in 2002) out of 400 million mobile-phone subscribers where there the former Organization of African Unity. Regional had previously been very few functioning land- Economic Communities are also gaining in lines. The ability to communicate freely, easily, and capacity and clout, and the principle of noninter- cheaply has undermined the last vestiges of state ference in the affairs of neighboring states has control of information. Moreover, the availability of been replaced by adherence to international norms. mobile telephones is intersecting with the rise The recent coup in Guinea1 and the recent uncon- of African civil society in unforeseen ways. stitutional conduct of Niger’s president2 have led to the expulsion of both countries from ECOWAS In Zimbabwe, for example, citizen election (the Economic Community of West African States). monitors visited polling stations across the country 1 In December 2008, Captain Among other things, ECOWAS provides sub- during the presidential election of 2008 and Moussa Dadis Camara led a violent military coup after the stantial numbers of peacekeepers in conflict zones took photographs of the preliminary results there. death of Guinea’s dictator throughout the continent. Governance at the Zimbabwean electoral law dictates that these Lansana Conté. 2 Niger’s president Mamadou continental level is improving and reinforcing

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