Malawi ranking remains unchanged in governance ratings

Ibrahim: The real story coming out of Africa is that governance performance is improving

Malawi remained in the top 20 countries in Africa in the Mo Ibrahim Index, which measures good governance.  

The index released in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia yesterday and made available to Nyasa Times showed that between 2005 and 2006 Malawi marginally improved its overall score to 63.9% out of 100 but its ranking remained unchanged at 11th place out of sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries surveyed. 

The top five countries remained unchanged. They are Mauritius, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana and South Africa, all scoring over 70%.

Malawi has improved in three categories; Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption; Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.  

In the category of Safety and Security, Malawi's score remained consistent at 86.17 %.  However, in the category of Participation and Human Rights, its score fellfrom 71.0% to 69.1 %. 

The most notable improvement was in Sustainable Economic Opportunity, where Malawi's score rose by 1.5 points. 

A number of countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) demonstrated strong performance in the Ibrahim Index, with five members of SADC ranking in the top ten of the overall Ibrahim Index and a further seven members ranking in the top half.  

The 14 members of SADC improved their scores with regard to last year, with Zimbabwe the only SADC country to fall in both score and rank compared to last year.  

Within SADC, Malawi ranked sixth out of the 16 members. 

“However, many issues remain unchanged in the continent, especially women’s rights,” the report noted. 

“Obscured by many of the headlines of the past few months, the real story coming out of Africa is that governance performance across a large majority of African countries is improving,” said Founder and chairman Mo Ibrahim. 

Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born former telecommunications magnate turned philanthropist, has said his idea of the index stemmed from a conviction, gained while building his continent-wide mobile phone network, that poor governance was the single biggest impediment to Africa’s development.  

The index was prepared by a group of Harvard academics, with assistance from distinguished Africans, and uses sources including the United Nations, anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, think-tanks and field expeditions by the Harvard team.

The Mo Ibrahim foundation awards $5m to a former African head of state who has demonstrated excellence in leadership during his time in office.

Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano won last year’s award. The next Ibrahim Laureate will be announced on October 20, 2008.