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2016 Edition of the Ibrahim Index on African Governance
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), established in 2007, provides an assessment of the quality of governance in African countries. The IIAG is compiled by 81 indicators and 265 variables from 54 data projects, coming from 47 independent African and international data sources.[1][2] Published every two years, the IIAG is one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of data on African governance.[3]
The IIAG provides a framework for citizens, governments, institutions, academics and business to assess the delivery of public goods and services, and policy outcomes, across Africa.[4]
The Foundation defines governance as the provision of the political, social, economic and environmental goods that a citizen has the right to expect from their state, and that a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens.[5] The IIAG assesses progress under four main conceptual categories: Security & Rule of Law, Participation, Rights & Inclusion, Foundations for Economic Opportunity, and Human Development.[3][6]
Scholars, development professionals, analysts, and policymakers have used the IIAG to benchmark governance performance across a number of dimensions at national, regional and continental levels.[7] Scores and ranks are available for the latest 10-year period, enabling the analysis of trends over time.[8] All underlying data used in the construction of the IIAG is freely available and transparently published alongside a comprehensive methodology.
History
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) is a key initiative of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation that was first published in 2007. The most recent iteration, the 2022 IIAG, was published in January 2023 and covers the period 2012-2021.[9][10]
The index was initially produced in association with Harvard University; academic and technical assistance has subsequently been provided by a range of African academics and research bodies.[11]
The IIAG is published every two years and receives extensive media attention from across the African continent and in the international media.[12][13] The Ibrahim Index has been used by civil society and government bodies across the continent to monitor governance. One example is in, where political opponents of President Uhuru Kenyatta used the 2022 IIAG to challenge his administration’s record on governance.[14]
In 2007, critics suggested that the IIAG was limited by its focus on the 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, ignoring Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Aside from these five additions, the IIAG first included South Sudan, which became a separate country in 2011, in its 2015 iteration.[15]
Methodology
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) is a composite Index that is published every two years and provides a statistical measure of governance performance in 54 African countries.[16]
The IIAG governance framework comprises four dimensions (categories):[17]
These categories are made up of 16 sub-categories, consisting of 81 indicators.[20] For the latest IIAG, 265 variables have been collected from 47 independent sources.[10]
The IIAG is refined and revised on a biannual basis to continually improve its measurement of governance. Improvements are a result of either methodological changes, or based on the inclusion of new data. Equally, if previously included measures undergo fundamental methodological changes or do not meet the criteria for inclusion anymore, it may be necessary to exclude them from future iterations. It is also necessary to update previously published data if retrospective revisions are made to data at source.[21]
As a result of these changes, the entire IIAG dataset is re-calculated with each new iteration, in accordance with best practices. The retrospective revision means that score and rank comparisons between years should be made entirely within the latest available IIAG iteration.
Ahead of the 2020 IIAG, the structure of the Index was changed so that the vast majority of indicators are now composed of more than one single variable collected from source.[22] This is based on the understanding that composite scores constitute the key value added of the IIAG dataset, and aims to provide a clearer, more complete and more stable framework.
Furthermore, since the 2020 iteration, the IIAG is also accompanied by the Citizens’ Voices dataset. All variables collected for this complementary dataset are sourced from Afrobarometer, the leading pan-African research institution conducting public opinion surveys. Even though Citizens’ Voices is calculated as a separate index and its scores are not counted in the calculation of IIAG scores, this dataset mirrors the IIAG framework and helps contextualise the official and expert assessment data in the IIAG with the reality on the ground as perceived by citizens.
How to read the results
The IIAG provides score, rank and 10-year trends for all governance measures included in the dataset, and these are available for each country, as well as for multinational groupings such as the continent, African geographical regions and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).[23]
Scores
Each governance measure is given a score out of 100.0 to quantify a country’s performance for each data year. Scores are rounded to one decimal point and show each country’s performance in relation to the other 54 African countries.
Ranks
The 54 countries represented in the IIAG are ranked for each governance measure based on their respective scores and countries are sorted by performance. If two or more countries share the same score, they are given the same place in the ranking table.
10-year trends
10-year trends offer additional insights into the scores and ranks by showing the change in score between the last and the first data years of the given period. For example, the 2022 IIAG 10-year trends compare each country’s performance for each governance measure in 2021 and 2012.
Indicators
The latest IIAG comprises 81 indicators, grouped into four broad categories: Security & Rule of Law, Participation, Rights & Inclusion, Foundations for Economic Opportunity, and Human Development.[24] The Overall Governance score is arrived at by calculating the unweighted average of the four IIAG categories.
Security and Rule of Law
Scores on the safety and rule of law category based on report from 2009
100
75
50
25
0
no data
The 21 indicators in the Security & Rule of Law category are divided into four sub-categories: Security & Safety, Rule of Law & Justice, Accountability & Transparency and Anti-Corruption.[22]
The Security & Safety sub-category includes five indicators measuring Absence of Armed Conflict,[10] Absence of Violence against Civilians, Absence of Forced Migration, Absence of Human Trafficking & Forced Labour and Absence of Crime.
The Rule of Law & Justice sub-category includes six indicators measuring Executive Compliance with the Rule of Law, Impartiality of the Judicial System, Judicial Process, Equality before the Law, Law Enforcement and Property Rights.[22]
The Accountability & Transparency sub-category includes five indicators measuring Institutional Checks & Balances, Absence of Undue Influence on Government, Civic Checks & Balances, Disclosure of Public Records and Accessibility of Public Records.[25]
The Anti-Corruption sub-category includes five indicators measuring Anti-Corruption Mechanisms, Absence of Corruption in State Institutions, Absence of Corruption in the Public Sector, Public Procurement Procedures and Absence of Corruption in the Private Sector.[26]
Participation, Rights and Inclusion
Scores on the participation and human rights category based on report from 2009
100
75
50
25
0
no data
The 19 indicators in the Participation, Rights & Inclusion category are divided into four sub-categories: Participation, Rights, Inclusion & Equality and Women’s Equality.[22]
The Participation sub-category includes four indicators measuring Freedom of Association & Assembly, Political Pluralism, Civil Society Space and Democratic Elections.[22]
The Rights sub-category includes five indicators measuring Personal Liberties, Freedom of Expression & Belief, Media Freedom, Digital Rights and Protection against Discrimination.[27]
The Inclusion & Equality sub-category includes five indicators measuring Equal Political Power, Equal Political Representation, Equal Civil Liberties, Equal Socioeconomic Opportunity and Equal Access to Public Services.[25]
The Women’s Equality sub-category includes five indicators measuring Political Power & Representation of Women, Equal Rights & Civil Liberties for Women, Socioeconomic Opportunity for Women, Equal Access to Public Services for Women and Laws on Violence against Women.[6]
Foundations for Economic Opportunity
Scores on the sustainable economic opportunity category based on report from 2009
100
75
50
25
0
no data
The 20 indicators in the Foundations for Economic Opportunity category are divided into four sub-categories: Public Administration, Business & Labour Environment, Infrastructure and Rural Economy.[22]
The Public Administration sub-category includes five indicators measuring Civil registration, Capacity of the Statistical System, Tax & Revenue Mobilisation, Budgetary & Financial Management and Effective Administration.[2]
The Business & Labour Environment sub-category includes six indicators measuring Regional Integration, Economic Diversification, Business & Competition Regulations, Access to Banking Services, Labour Relations and Secure Employment Opportunities.[25]
The Infrastructure sub-category includes five indicators measuring Transport Network, Access to Energy, Mobile Communications, Internet & Computers and Shipping & Postal Network.[22]
The Rural Economy sub-category includes four indicators measuring Rural Land & Water Access, Rural Market Access, Rural Economy Support and Rural Representation & Participation.[26]
Human Development
Scores on the human development category based on report from 2009
100
75
50
25
0
no data
The 21 indicators in the Human Development category are divided into four sub-categories: Health, Education, Social Protection & Welfare and Sustainable Environment.[26]
The Health sub-category includes six indicators measuring Access to Healthcare, Access to Water & Sanitation, Control of Communicable Diseases, Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, Child & Maternal Health and Compliance with International Health Regulations.[28]
The Education sub-category includes five indicators measuring Equality in Education, Education Enrolment, Education Completion, Human Resources in Education and Education Quality.[29]
The Social Protection & Welfare sub-category includes five indicators measuring Social Safety Nets, Poverty Reduction Policies, Socioeconomic Inequality Mitigation, Decent Housing and Food Security.[25]
The Sustainable Environment sub-category includes five indicators measuring Promotion of Environmental Sustainability, Enforcement of Environmental Policies, Air Quality, Sustainable Use of Land & Forests and Land & Water Biodiversity Protection.[26]
Criticism
Some scholars have questioned the effectiveness of the Index and particularly the need for civil society to engage with its results, pointing out that there does not often exist in Africa a strong and effective civil society.[30]
2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance Overall Governance rankings
Robert Irwin Rotberg is an academic from the United States who served as President of the World Peace Foundation (1993–2010). A professor in governance and foreign affairs, he was director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Conflict Prevention, and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1999–2010), and has served in administrative positions at Tufts University and Lafayette College.
The Democracy Index published by the Economist Group is an index measuring the quality of democracy across the world. This quantitative and comparative assessment is centrally concerned with democratic rights and democratic institutions. The methodology for assessing democracy used in this democracy index is according to Economist Intelligence Unit which is part of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company, which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped into five categories, measuring pluralism, civil liberties, and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes each country into one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. The first Democracy Index report was published in 2006. Reports were published every two years until 2010 and annually thereafter. The index includes 167 countries and territories, of which 166 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states. Other democracy indices with similar assessments of the state of democracy include V-Dem Democracy indices or Bertelsmann Transformation Index.
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Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Australia-based NGO Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. The GPI ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their levels of peacefulness. In the past decade, the GPI has presented trends of increased global violence and less peacefulness.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is an African non-grant foundation founded in 2006 by businessman Mo Ibrahim. Headquartered in London and Dakar, Senegal, it works to strengthen governance and leadership in Africa through its key initiatives:
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) is a data collection program on organized violence, based at Uppsala University in Sweden. The UCDP is a leading provider of data on organized violence and armed conflict, and it is the oldest ongoing data collection project for civil war, with a history of almost 40 years. UCDP data are systematically collected and have global coverage, comparability across cases and countries, and long time series. Data are updated annually and are publicly available, free of charge. Furthermore, preliminary data on events of organized violence in Africa is released on a monthly basis.
The Global Gender Gap Report is an index designed to measure gender equality. It was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum.
The Child Development Index (CDI) is an index combining performance measures specific to children—education, health and nutrition—to produce a score on a scale of 0 to 100. A zero score would be the best. The higher the score, the worse children are faring.
The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is an index that measures discrimination against women. It solely focuses on social institutions which are formal and informal laws, social norms and customary practices that impact the roles of women. The SIGI is a multifaceted measure that focuses on four dimensions: Discrimination in the family, Restricted physical integrity, Restricted access to productive and financial resources, and Restricted civil liberties.
The Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI), first published in spring 2009 and updated in 2011, analyze and compare the need for reform in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, as well as each country's ability to respond to current social and political challenges. The project is designed to create a comprehensive data pool on government-related activities in the countries considered the world's most developed free-market democracies. In addition, it uses international comparisons to provide evidence-based input for reform-related public discourse taking place in these countries. The SGI are updated every two or three years.
The World Justice Project (WJP) is an international civil society organization with the stated mission of "working to advance the rule of law around the world". It produces the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, a quantitative assessment tool that shows the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. WJP's major activity is the World Justice Forum, a global gathering at which prominent leaders from all parts of the world and a variety of disciplines come together to articulate how the rule of law affects their disciplines and regions and to develop collaborative actions to strengthen the rule of law.
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) is a project that reports both aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories covering the period from 1996 to 2021. It considers six dimensions of governance:
The OECD Gender, Institutions and Development (GID) Database, or GID-DB, contains more than 60 data indicators of gender equality. The GID-DB was introduced in 2006 by the OECD Development Centre to provide a data tool to help researchers and policy makers determine and analyze obstacles to women's social and economic development. It provides these gender-related data for up to 162 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, thereby covering all regions and country-income-categories of the world.
The Women's Economic Opportunity Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that measures the enabling environment for women's economic participation in 128 countries. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Women's Economic Opportunity Index is based on 29 indicators that measure a country's laws, regulations, practices, customs and attitudes that allow women to participate in the workforce under conditions roughly equal to those of men, whether as wage-earning employees or as owners of a business. The index was first produced in 2010, with an updated index produced in 2012. Three indicators were added and 15 new countries were assessed in the 2012 version of the Index.
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Measures of gender equality or inequality are statistical tools employed to quantify the concept of gender equality.
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