Despite marginal improvements over the past decade, good governance in Africa has “stagnated” since 2019, and in 2021 the continent was less safe, less protected and less democratic than in 2012. Findings come from the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, revealed yesterday. Of the Portuguese-speaking countries, Angola was the one that made the most progress, with Guinea-Bissau the one that lost the most places, in a list where only Cape Verde is in the top ten.
“Improvements in human development and the foundation for economic opportunity are being undermined by an increasingly dangerous security environment and a backlash for democracy as the continent struggles to manage the combined impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis.”, reads the founding document of the British businessman of Sudanese origin. “Urgent action is needed to face the democratic setback and growing insecurity, to avoid undoing years of progress in governance,” adds he to it.
Mo Ibrahim himself warned of the rise of authoritarianism. “We started to see coups, which we thought were a thing of the past. We started to see this phenomenon of the strongman. It’s something we have to fight”he said, quoted by Reuters. Of the 29 scams registered worldwide between 2012 and 2021, 23 took place in Africa, specifically in the Sahel region.
According to the report, by 2021 nearly 70% of the continent’s population will live in a country where levels of security and the rule of law are worse than in 2012, with this indicator falling the most in the past decade – with an accelerated decline over the past five year. On the other hand, more than 90% of the African population lives in a country where the level of human development – which takes into account indicators such as access to health, education, social security or a sustainable environment – is better than in 2012.
Mauritius leads the index
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation report, which is published every two years, analyzes the performance of the governments of 54 African countries on some 80 indicators. The five countries with a better result are Mauritius (74.9 points out of 100), Seychelles, Tunisia, Cape Verde and Botswana. South Sudan (18.5 points) is at the bottom of the list, followed in reverse order by Somalia, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic. The Gambia was the country that made the most progress since 2012 (+9.5 points), with Libya the country that retreated the most (minus 8.5 points).
From the Portuguese speaking countries, Cape Verde is the best ranked, in fourth place, with 70.7 points out of 100, despite a decrease of 1.2 points compared to 2012. In the last report, from 2020, it was ranked second, with a drop in areas such as economic opportunity and participation foundations, rights and inclusion. It is on this last point that São Tomé and Príncipe shows improvements, ranking 11th in the index (one higher), with 59.5 points, 1.6 more in ten years.
Mozambique maintains 26th place with 48.6 points, down 0.8 from 2012, with insecurity related to attacks by Islamic extremists in the north and the prevalence of child marriage contributing to the worst performance. Angola ranks 40th, with 41.5 points, making it the one with the highest increase of any Portuguese-speaking country – 5.4 points and three positions on the list. The replacement of President José Eduardo dos Santos, who had been in power for 39 years, with João Lourenço has contributed significantly to improving transparency and accountability.
Guinea-Bissau ranks 44th and is about to enter the bottom ten, with 40.2 points, despite an improvement of 1.7 points since 2012. In the 2020 report, it was ranked 41st. The country is in a group of eight along with Burkina Faso, Swatini, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia and Rwanda that are showing signs of concern as they have reversed the trend to a negative trajectory or halted progress altogether.
With Lusa
Source: DN
