The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has just published its 2020 report on good governance in Africa. And for the first time in 10 years, the Ibrahim index slid on the continent.

According to the document, the average on the continent was 48.8 in 2019, making a decrease by 0.2 percentage pt compared with 49 in 2018.  This is the first decline since 2010. The study says the situation is due to poor performances in three of the Index’s four categories: participation and human rights, Safety and the rule of law, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development. Indeed, in recent years, the continent's progress in these sectors has slowed down, with a more marked decline from 2015 onwards.

Between 2010 and 2019, the performance of African countries in terms of human development improved by 3% (51.9 out of 100 in 2019) while that of the foundations for economic opportunities increased by 4.1% (47.8 out of 100 in 2019).

However, the level of African countries declined by -1.4% in terms of participation, respect for rights and inclusion of citizens (46.2 out of 100 in 2019), and by - 0.7% in terms of security and rule of law (49.5 out of 100 in 2019). This is mainly due to the political and security crises that have shaken several countries on the continent.

Mauritius remains the best performer in terms of governance with a score of 77.2 while Somalia is the worst with 19.2. Over the past decade, the highest progress was achieved by Gambia (+9.2) while the worst deterioration came from Libya (-5.5).

By regions, in 2019, Southern Africa was the best performer in terms of good governance with an index of 53.3, followed by West Africa (53.1), North Africa (52), East Africa (46.2), and Central Africa (38.8).

Let’s note that only eight countries have improved their performance in the four main categories of the Mo Ibrahim Index over the last decade, namely, Angola, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Sudan and Togo.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou