By Francis Daniels
234next.com
October 19, 2009
Many an African state carries the scars of experience of the tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons exists in a state when a small minority of citizens of that state appropriate large benefits from a particular policy while imposing the costs of that policy on other citizens. South Africa under apartheid was the most notorious example with white South Africans commanding a disproportionate share of wealth.
Today, we fight to end that tragedy throughout Africa. A vital weapon in that battle is identifying, by objective criteria, the best governed African states and understanding the sources of ideal African governance.
That knowledge can then be disseminated from the democratic role models, with modifications, to the more benighted de facto African "kingdoms". Of necessity, we, the victims, must be the collectors of that data. Yet, it is an expensive task of little profit for the individual; consequently, we are unlikely to undertake that task. Into the breach,then, steps the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.
It is headed by Africans and works with academics living in Africa to assess the quality of African governments.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was established by Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim, a wealthy Sudanese engineer with a gift for establishing successful telecommunications businesses.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced its 2009 Ibrahim Index on October 5, 2009. This Index ranks African countries according to the quality of their governance. A country's governance, in my lexicon, means the quality of rule of that country's people by its government. Countries at peace, holding regular and honest elections, subject to the Rule of Law, low inflation, with residents that go about their daily lives with minimum instruction from the government should rank higher than corrupt and chaotic countries. Eighty-four criteria cover statistics or expert analysis on matters as diverse as violent crime, child mortality, primary school completion ratios, and the investment climate for rural businesses.
The top ten best governed countries in Africa, as in 2006 and 2007, were Mauritius, Cape Verde, Seychelles, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Tunisia, Lesotho and Sao Tome & Principe.
The worst governed states, in order of disaster, were Somalia, Chad, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea. Perfection is a score of 100. Mauritius scored 82.83, South Africa 69.44, Ghana 65.96, 35th placed Nigeria 46.46, Guinea 40.41, and Somalia 15.24. It also seems that southern Africa is the most liveable part of Africa, followed by North Africa, West Africa, and Eastern Africa.
Of course, all of these indices can be faulted for being arbitrary in some way. Yet, they provide ordinary people with data to compare their rulers against other African rulers. A mobile telephone, with Internet access, is all one needs to compare and contrast the current Nigerian administration, for example, with those of other African countries.
What can be learnt from the Ibrahim Index?
First:
Decentralise. Africa's best governed states are its smallest countries. Fighting poor rule of 100,000 people is much cheaper than contesting bad rule over 150 million souls. Furthermore, majorities of small communities feel quickly the costs of corruption and bad policies while knowing who are the culprits of their suffering.
Small countries experience short tragedies of the commons. Larger countries must devolve the maximum possible power and taxing authority to the local government unit responsible for up to 5 million people.
Second:
Don't give up hope, if you are a resident of a country that is not in the top ten! No one would have selected a multiracial and multi religious island of sugar plantations devoid of oil or minerals, plagued by high unemployment and the highest population density in Africa and recovering from intense communal riots in 1968, its year of independence, to become the best governed African country in four decades. But, Mauritius defied its sceptics! Without fanfare, the purchasing power of Mauritius' per capita income has sprinted past the South African level of $10,000 to a level of $12,000. Mauritius demonstrates what a few good African leaders can do for their people.
Third:
Africa has all the lessons within its midst for achieving rapid development. South Africa can learn a lot from Mauritius while Nigeria reflects on the reasons for Ghana's relative progress. The 2009 Ibrahim Index is a useful report card for Africa. We owe the Mo Ibrahim Foundation a big vote of thanks for providing comparative data to enable the African voter to assess his rulers.
Related Materials:
The full 2008 Ibrahim Index
Mo Ibrahim declines to award 2009 African leadership prize
Who's doing well in Africa? Look south
Mo Ibrahim Index Misleading, the Rwandan Government Claims
Kagame attacks Mo Ibrahim, accuses west of “polluting Africa”
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