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Lessons from Mo Ibrahim’s Leadership on Good Governance
By Richard Gilbert, Deputy Director Business Action for Africa
Earlier this month, the news that Cape Verde’s President Pedro Verona Pires scooped the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership after a two year absence of a winner perhaps overshadowed the simultaneous release of the 2011 Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Whilst the former is largely symbolic, the latter is now the most comprehensive summary of Africa governance indicators and an increasingly important barometer of regional progress. The overarching message from this year’s index is that Africa continues to make steady, albeit uneven progress in the quality of its governance.
The Ibrahim Governance Index statistically monitors African governance using eighty-four criteria divided into four categories: safety and the rule of law, participation and human rights, economic opportunity, and human development.
The results show that just over half of the countries in Africa have improved in overall governance quality, and just under half have declined. The top five countries in the index were Mauritius, Cape Verde, Botswana, Seychelles and South Africa. The worst performers were the Central African Republic, Congo, Zimbabwe, Chad, and Somalia.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of this year’s index is the clear link demonstrated between a balanced, equitable and inclusive approach to all categories of governance and national economic progress. That is to say that the most economically successful countries in the index showed a consistently high score across all four of the core categories covering Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development. Many countries however showed large differences in performance across categories, with the majority of countries improving in Economic Opportunity and Human Development, but lagging in Rule of Law and Human Rights.
Although not new, the key point of the report serves to remind us that sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction cannot happen in an environment that neglects human rights and restricts political participation. If economic gains are not matched by strengthened governance, the continent runs the risk of another boom and bust cycle and future instability. Good governance also remains a key requirement enabling the private sector—the engine room of growth—to invest with confidence, for the long-term.
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Comment by Kris Dev on October 18, 2011 at 11:37am -
Transparency leading to accountability is the key to progress. In the absence of transparency in all dealings of Govt. and business, there can be no true progress of all sections of society. If the business is benefitted unduly, then certainly it is at the cost of the customer and citizens. There can be no inclusive growth in the absence of level playing field for all sections of society and more importantly empowerment of the marginalized.
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Comment by Robert L. Jones, II on October 25, 2011 at 3:11pm -
It is sad that there seem to be not enough quality leaders in Africa to qualify consistently for the Mo Ibrahim Prize. Perhaps The Prize directors will see the wisdom in establishing programs that focus on showing African leaders and citizens what good governance really is and that educate communities about the types of benefits they should expect, and can derive from well-managed good governance.
Perhaps in the future, public institutions in countries that are making obvious strides in the right direction could be considered. Until the masses as well as the elite are educated and can actually see, feel and communicate their experiences with the benefits of good governance, the Mo Ibrahim prize, sadly will gather much dust in future years.
Nations like Tanzania, while not perfect, seem to be establishing institutions that intend to actively engage citizens and their leaders in dialogue and ACTION in their quest for good governance. The Open University of Tanzania is leading that nation by establishing the Julius Nyerere International Center for Good Governance, Leadership and Media Education, a proactive organization that engages all social strata in meaningful and substantive dialogue and activities that let citizens "test drive" various democratic concepts, solutions and configurations designed by "village think tanks". Citizen experiences with governance will be communicated nationally and regionally through OUT's network of 30 regional learning centers. These centers feature rural broadband access, community radio/TV, libraries and village-based media production, distribution and training centers that actively engage citizens and provide them the opportunity to exercise their rights under a democratic system that works best for their region. This venture is partnering with major international universities in the US, Europe and Asia. These already include Howard University and the African Virtual University.
Just imagine a diverse online global community that shares information about how to recognize good governance and also how to secure cooperation from the many types of organizations that a democratic system of any design contains. This would be money well spent indeed and will most likely yield more African leaders who qualify for the Mo Ibrahim Prize in the future based in part from the research data the Center will collect.
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