African governance

A new league table that names, shames and sometimes praises African countries

THE islands do rather better than the mainland. That is just one finding of an exercise to measure the performance of sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries, judged by five sets of criteria that are totted up and averaged out to give each country an overall governance score. Mauritius and the Seychelles are run-away winners, with Botswana best of the mainlanders. The tiny Cape Verde Islands come fourth and mighty South Africa fifth. At the other end of the scale, war-smitten Somalia is worst, barely beaten by Congo, Chad and Sudan.
The league table is the idea of Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born British entrepreneur who sold his mobile-phone company, Celtel, to a Kuwait-based firm, MTC, for $3.4 billion (£1.8 billion) two years ago. Last year he said he would give a prize for “achievement in African leadership” worth $5m, plus $200,000 a year for life, to an African leader who “best provides security, health, education and economic development and who democratically transfers power to a successor.” A dozen retired African leaders hope to be considered as recipients.
Two scholars from America's Harvard University, Robert Rotberg and Rachel Gisselquist, are helping Mr Ibrahim assess the nominees and measure countries' performance—by such criteria as safety and security, rule of law and corruption, participation and human rights, economic opportunity, and human development. The “Ibrahim Index of African Governance” will, the tycoon hopes, come out every year—and prod African leaders into doing better.