African Countries Improve Their Governance, Study Shows
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Nicholas Benequista, Christian Science Monitor, October 8, 2008
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Yet out of the media spotlight, much of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa was quietly building better governments, according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which uses a complex equation of annual indicators to monitor how well governments are performing in the region’s 48 countries.
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The organization’s latest figures, based on data collected in 2006, points to an often overlooked phenomenon: the emergence of free and fair elections across sub-Saharan Africa.
The index measures progress in five categories—including a government’s ability to establish peace and security, guarantee basic civil and human rights, oversee economic growth, and provide public services—but most the countries that scored higher marks this year did so by opening elections to competition.
Robert Rotberg, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University who teamed up with Sudanese telecommunications tycoon Mo Ibrahim to design the index, attributed the change to the growth of the middle class, greater civic consciousness, greater international and national pressure on governments, and the dying off of the first generation of postcolonial leaders.
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The survey ranked Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana, and South Africa as the best governed countries on the continent for a second straight year.
Liberia won top honors for improvement. In 2006, following two decades of civil war, Liberia elected the continent’s first-ever female head of state, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who has since set about rebuilding the country’s infrastructure and institutions.
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Nearly two-thirds of the countries in the index improved their scores from 2005, adding to recent indications of devleopment in Africa. In 2005, the World Bank in its annual report stated that Africa had “turned the corner” from poverty and debt to prosperity and wealth.
Yet some observers warn against triumphalism, and point to the new challenges ahead.
“State authoritarianism remains a very established fact in African government systems; elections are not entirely free and fair; corruption remains the order of the day,” says Osaghae Eghosa, professor of political science and vice-chancelor of Nigeria’s Igbinedion University. “You will find that the logical consequence of that kind of setup cannot be good governance.”
As foreign donors and international investors increasingly look for fair elections, government transparency and an impartial judiciary as conditions for releasing funds, African leaders are under pressure to at least appear more democratic.
[Editor’s Note: A Summary of “The Ibrahim Index of African Governance” can be read here. On that page are links to the various portions of the report.A press release and briefing report are available here.]
(Posted on October 9, 2008)
Comments
“In 2005, the World Bank in its annual report stated that Africa had “turned the corner” from poverty and debt to prosperity and wealth.”
So why is the rest of the world still throwing trillions of dollars a year into Africa?
Or maybe the world bank is just setting up the African countries for another round of economically destructive debt. I mean, what would the world bank do if some African secretary of the treasury sat down with a calculator and decided that his country simply afford to pay back the latest world bank loan?
Most of the first generation of leaders was schooled in Moscow, after first being spotted at Harvard, Oxford, London School of Economics, Sorbonne, Heidelberg, University of Berlin etc etc by
communist professors.
So anything is an improvement.
Posted by margaret at 5:59 PM on October 9
To be expected, most of those first generation leaders were revolutionaries, hardly fit to govern a country but good at guerilla warfare.
Posted by A. Windaus at 6:25 PM on October 9
Zimbabwe has fallen into the state of a “failed economy” with widespread starvation and civil unrest and South Africa is soon to follow in this path to destruction. What does the New York Times report but that things are getting better. Only the internet saves the US public from being subjugated by this liberal left-wing propoganda.
Posted by Tim at 7:25 PM on October 9
Here is an article from the Australian relating signs of progress in Africa.
Mugabe regime cancels the school year.
Jan Raath, Harare | October 10, 2008
THE class of 2008 will not receive an education.
Since the school year began in January, Zimbabwe’s 4.5million pupils have had a total of 23 uninterrupted classroom days, teaching unions say — a sorry state for a country that once had the highest standard of education in Africa.
President Robert Mugabe became an African hero of rare distinction when he carried out a big expansion of the education system in the early years of his rule. But, as with most of the country’s infrastructure, that system is now collapsing.
The national high school leaving pass rate in the mid-1990s was 72 per cent. Last year, it crashed to 11 per cent. Many schools recorded zero passes.
To avoid the humiliation of total failure, the Government has cancelled the academic year.
“It would be criminal if theGovernment allows examinations to go ahead,” said the secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Raymond Majongwe.
In January, teachers went on a prolonged strike over their salaries. In April, Mr Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party accused them of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change during the March elections and blamed them for the President’s first-round defeat.
Six teachers were murdered and thousands were assaulted by ZANU-PF militia in the violence that marred the second-round presidential election on June 27.
Schools were looted and turned into torture centres. Teachers disappeared. Many are still unable to return for fear of being disciplined.
Now the coup de grace to the education system is being delivered by hyperinflation. Teachers had their salaries doubled last week to the equivalent of $14.50 a month — barely enough for bus fares and bread for four days.
The handful of private and state schools where parents can pay large supplements to teachers’ salaries are the only ones operating. In most schools where teachers do turn up, pupil attendance is dwindling.
“We come to school and we entertain the kids until 10am, then we send them home,” said Amos Musoni, from Sengwe Primary School in the south of the country.
“There were 10 teachers last week, out of 32. They are there because they have no money to leave. We don’t even have chalk, or red pens, never mind books.”
Urban schools have been overwhelmed by water and power cuts. One primary school in Mabvuku township, Harare, has not had water for five years.
The country’s four leading universities have failed to open since the start of their first term in mid-August.
At the University of Zimbabwe, the country’s leading tertiary institution, a notice with last Friday’s date on a faculty building tells students that lectures will begin “on a date to be advised”. Vice-chancellor Levy Nyagura said the university had “no water, no electricity and no funds”.
Ellen Murogodo, a would-be first-year social work student, keeps returning to the campus to register, only to be told to try again a week later. To pay for her journey she sets up a stand outside the university’s Great Hall where she sells popcorn and cigarettes.
“Mugabe was a teacher himself (in the 1950s),” Mr Majongwe said. “He knows the potential of teachers as agents forchange.
“That is why he has deliberately destroyed education.”
The MDC said new talks on a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe had not ended a stalemate over cabinet posts.
Posted by margaret at 7:39 PM on October 9
“The survey ranked Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana, and South Africa as the best governed countries on the continent for a second straight year.”
I’m not really surprised about Mauritius being on that list, given this little tidbit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Mauritius
Note the following:
“Though the Franco-Mauritian group is small, it is the largest of the European ancestries on the island. They are usually upper-class citizens and form the wealthiest group of people on the island.”
Guess who’s running the show? Hint: it’s not the black Africans.
I found similar things written about the rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Seychelles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Cape_Verde
3% of the population of Botswana is White (including many Afrikaaner expats). Another 1% are ethnics originally from India. No surprise who dominates the economy.
As for South Africa?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-05-19-southafrica-tutu_N.htm?csp=34
http://www.avert.org/safricastats.htm
Ha! Ha! Ha! I needed a good laugh.
Posted by at 8:31 PM on October 9
I usually only say good things about Africa, putting me in the minority here at AmRen, but, look up the country of Benin. You’ll find that it was there, in 1991, that a black African president peacefully gave up power for the first time after an election. 1991. That’s almost unbelievable.
Posted by The brainwashing wore off me too at 9:31 PM on October 9
>
Mauritius is two-thirds South Asian - the descendants of indentured labor (coolies) brought in by the British; it had no indigenous population prior to settlement, other than the poor dodoes.
The population of Seychelles is two-thirds Creole - white-East African mix; essentially, it’s a nation of Obamas.
Given the heavy Asian/white genetic influx, should one be surprised to learn that these are the two best-governed “African” countries?
Posted by Eugenicist at 10:51 PM on October 9
“The survey ranked Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana, and South Africa as the best governed countries on the continent for a second straight year.”
As another commenter noted, three of these five are tiny island nations — highly unrepresentative of mainland Africa — with white elites running things, while the other two have some of the the highest percentages of white inhabitants in sub-Saharan Africa. Looked at this way, the findings of the group support a re-imposition of colonialism as the best means of establising fair, honest and efficient governance in Africa.
I also found the “most improved” award given to Liberia highly amusing. According to the CIA Factbook, it is the fourth poorest country in the entire world (pushed out of the third spot with Zimbabwe’s collapse), with half the per capita GDP of Afghanistan, and an unemployment rate of 85%! I don’t suppose it had anywhere left to go but up.
Posted by Dave at 1:48 AM on October 10
Don’t be fooled by this article. As with everything else Africa is held to a completely different set of standards - just like in eg South Africa whites and blacks are held to different standards.
The whole continent, incl all the so-called success stories are one big mess.
Posted by commando at 7:06 AM on October 10
I suspose that Jacob Zuma (AKA “bring me my machine gun”) ANC leader is an example of this “improved governance”?
Posted by Sardonicus at 8:08 AM on October 10
Commando and others are right to caution about taking this report seriously. Development agencies like the World Bank have traditionally done rhetorical handstands trying to put an optimistic face on African progress.
It seems that things don’t actually have to get better as long as development agencies and their African “partners” keep proposing new initiatives and holding round-tables to report on “next steps.” Promises are made, projects funded, salaries paid, and new sincere-sounding buzzwords are adopted. Everybody goes home rectified with purpose and conviction.
…Until the next round of indicators shows continued decline and the latest development deadlines pass without attainment.
(It’s not for nothing that these development professionals have been labeled the “Lords of Poverty.”)
I remember a conversation I had about 20 years ago with a seasoned development professional about Africa’s future. (I was young, idealistic…he was experienced, realistic.) What, I asked him, was the best thing development agencies could do to get Africa “on track”?
Without missing a beat, he replied: “We have two options: (a) Recolonization; or (b) all of us pull our money and advisers out now. Then we tell the Africans, ‘We’ll come back and talk to you in ten years —- but there are no promises of restarting aid UNLESS you’ve shown that you’re serious about getting your act together.’”
“But,” he added, “we’ll never do either one of those…so things are not going to change for a long time.”
Guess what —- right on all counts.
Posted by at 11:41 AM on October 10
“Schools were looted and turned into torture centres.”
Yes, and the black leadership in Zimbabwe is still congratulating themselves for what they perceive to be a rare dsplay of magnificent ingenuity, African style.
And if they’re criticized by the outside world for it, no doubt they’ll say the fault is due to the evils of white rule.
Posted by q at 9:58 PM on October 11
“Commando and others are right to caution about taking this report seriously. Development agencies like the World Bank have traditionally done rhetorical handstands trying to put an optimistic face on African progress.”
Absolutely true. Certain organizations for years have attempted to spin a happy face on Africa as if doing so will somehow fool everybody into believing they have turned the corner and are on the road to prosperity and success. I guess after the African image is improved it is expected that the world will then eagerly pour money into the continent raising its prosperity to unimaginable levels, which they somehow perceive will be all that is needed to sail along smoothly from there on out.
Like putting a happy face on black achievements in the US, these spinners forget that nothing improves black competence and behavior and the charade is doomed to failure because of it.
After many attempts at flim flamming and many failures, for some reason these spinners never seem to get discouraged and continue on with the same old drivel from time to time.
It’s as if it is believed that the repetition of lies will somehow catch on at some point if they just keep uttering them.
Or it’s just possible they never give up because they’re so dense themselves.
Posted by trace at 3:26 AM on October 12
The brainwashing wore off me too at 9:31 PM on October 9
“look up the country of Benin. You’ll find that it was there, in 1991, that a black African president peacefully gave up power for the first time after an election. 1991. That’s almost unbelievable”
I looked it up, and you are mistaken. The first African leader to give up power to an elected government was General Obasanjo of Nigeria, who handed over to an elected government in 1979. There were two other power transfers before 1991. President Senghor of Senegal retired in 1980, while President Nyerere of Tanzania retired in 1986, and both peacefully handed power to their successors.
Despite that, much of Africa is in a mess, and most foreign aid given to Africa doesn’t seem to change things.
Posted by Jim at 9:29 AM on October 12
“you are mistaken. The first African leader to give up power to an elected government was General Obasanjo of Nigeria, who handed over to an elected government in 1979.”
The key point there is ‘General Obasanjo’. I do believe the page I read, meant, the first democratically elected leader ‘president’ to give up power, peacefully, to another democratically elected official. It did say ‘the first black african president to peacefully give up power’ something like that. I could be wrong too. I was just going with Wikipedia and what Benin itself claims.
Posted by at 11:06 AM on October 12
To The brainwashing wore off me too: you find a single example (done by only one person, I might add) of civilized behavior, and that gives you hope for the future of Benin? Have you read up on that country?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bn.html#People
“note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2008 est.)”
Point of fact: Benin has one of the highest death rates for children under five in the world! From the same webpage:
“The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture, cotton production, and regional trade. Growth in real output has averaged around 5% in the past seven years, but rapid population growth has offset much of this increase.”
“transshipment point used by Nigerian traffickers for narcotics destined for Western Europe; vulnerable to money laundering due to poorly enforced financial regulations”
I see nothing to distinguish Benin from any other black-run African country.
Posted by at 2:41 PM on October 13