2009 Index of African Governance

The best governed African countries are peaceful and prosperous. They are well led, they deliver good services to their citizens, they hold free and fair elections, and they are less corrupt than their neighbors. By contrast the worst governed African countries are convulsed by conflict, hopelessly corrupt, run by autocrats, and often afflicted with the resource curse. Inhabitants of the first set of states enjoy rising living standards and improving life expectancies. Those who live in the second set of kleptocracies often go hungry and face many nasty choices. In between are a vast set of countries that deliver some goods to their citizens, but not others. Some provide relatively good standards of living while infringing on basic civil and political rights. Some offer national security, while failing to provide public infrastructure.

The Index of African Governance, produced at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, ranks all 53 African countries according to their ability to provide good governance for their inhabitants. The full Index report illustrates the enormous variety of governance performance on the continent. Mauritius, the Seychelles, Cape Verde, and Botswana are the four best governed countries this year, as they were in last year's annually produced Index, then called the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Tunisia, Ghana, Algeria, Namibia, South Africa, and São Tomé and Príncipe round out the top ten best overall performers.

South Africa has slipped a little, from 5th to 9th largely because of its lower scores in the areas of respect for civil and political rights and the rule of law. In particular, its declines in terms of respect for physical integrity rights are notable. Although South Africa performs relatively well in most categories of the Index, in addition to its low score in the area of respect for physical integrity rights, its very low score in safety and security reflects the country's high crime rates. The Index also reveals continuing challenges in South Africa in terms of poverty and inequality.

The bottom ten countries on the 2009 Index of Governance are Guinea, in 43rd place, Zimbabwe, Angola, Eritrea, the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Congo (Kinshasa) in 50th place, Chad, the Sudan, and ungoverned Somalia.

Elsewhere in southern Africa, Lesotho is 23rd, Comoros 25th, Mozambique 31st.

Swaziland is 42nd, down from 34th in 2008.

Nigeria is 38th, having moved up slightly since last year.

In Central and East Africa, Malawi is 14th, Tanzania 20th, Zambia 24th, Rwanda 26th, Kenya 27th, and Uganda 28th.

The Index of African Governance measures governance according to service delivery across five major categories of analysis: Safety and Security; Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development. Scores on 57 variables provide the data for each of the category scores and for the overall ranking numbers. The 57 variables include such indicators as maternal mortality, kilometers of paved roads, GDP per capita, respect for civil and physical integrity rights, judicial independence, and numbers of people killed in violent conflicts.

The purpose of the Index is not to rank, per se, but to offer governments, civil societies, donors, and investors a complex method of diagnosing the way in which each of Africa's 53 countries are governed, as compared to each of the other governments of Africa. By noting which indicators lag and which have advanced, governments can improve the outcomes for their populations. Civil societies can agitate for improvements in certain identifiable sectors. The title of the published version of the Index each year is Strengthening African Governance. That, and bettering the lives of all of Africa's peoples, is the overriding purpose of the Index. Without hard numbers derived from real outputs, not inputs or perceptions, good policy cannot be made and Africa cannot move itself forward into the ranks of advanced plural economies and societies.

The Index of Governance method was invented by Robert I. Rotberg and Rachel M. Gisselquist at the Harvard Kennedy School. Rotberg and Gisselquist also work closely with a distinguished group of high level African advisors and rely on the in-country research of dedicated African associates. This is the third consecutive annual version of the Index, with its comprehensive rankings. It appears each year on several Harvard and other websites and in a 200-page published volume.