Uganda improves but African leaders fail test For the fourth time in five years, the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership award, worth $5 million (Shs 13bn) has gone unclaimed. The 2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), released Monday, will be seen as another indictment of leadership on a continent bathed in natural resources but awash with poverty. The index rates Uganda 18th out of 52 African countries in parameters of Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and Human Development. The Index shows that since 2000, Uganda has improved most in the category of Human Development, which measures welfare, education and health. The 2013 IIAG shows that 94 per cent of Africans - including those in Uganda – live in a country that has experienced overall governance improvement since 2000. The six per cent living in a country that has experienced governance deterioration since 2000 are in Madagascar, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Libya and Mali. Despite clear signs of improvement, award committee did not find any outstanding African politician who had left power in the last three years. The award, available since 2007, was meant to encourage African leaders to govern with excellence and leave in peace. According to the BBC, former Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki met at least one of the criteria for winning the award, after he stepped down as president. However, he lost out due to his 2007 violent re-election that claimed 1, 200 lives. Uganda was 19th last year, but is now ahead of regional perennial powerhouses Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda Uganda scored 56 per cent in overall governance, higher than the African average of 51.6 per cent. Its best performance was Participation and Human Rights, ranking 18th out of 52. The poorest performance was in Safety and Rule of Law, where it came 27th out of 52. Despite the progress, the report noted some deterioration in some indicators at a continental level. The 10 most deteriorated indicators are human rights which include freedom of expression, violent crime, social unrest, human trafficking, domestic armed conflict. The top 10 performers over the years have remained relatively stable, with eight countries managing to remain in this grouping since 2000. They include Mauritius, Botswana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Seychelles, Namibia, Tunisia and Ghana. Countries such as Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic, DRC and Somalia have constantly remained in the bottom 10. Meanwhile, the Safety and Rule of Law category has declined worryingly, showing year-on-year declines since 2010. But Mo Ibrahim, chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation called for pragmatism. “Neither Afro-pessimism nor Afro-optimism do justice to modern Africa,” he said. “This is now the age of Afro-realism - an honest outlook on our continent. It’s about a celebration of its achievements but also a pragmatic acknowledgement of the challenges that lie ahead.”
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 08:29:28 +0000
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