Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Complied by the Harvard School of Government the index is funded and published by the Ibrahim Foundation which was established last year by the African entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, to promote good governance and to provide objective criteria by which citizens can hold their government to account.

'Real story'

"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 Ibrahim, at a press conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"According to this comprehensive analysis, progress is being made across the continent against a range of key governance indicators," the foundations annual survey reported. The index assesses national governments against 57 criteria divided into five broad categories: safety and security; rule of law, transparency and corruption; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity; and human development.

The Democracy Genie

"The democracy genie is out of the bottle" notes Hania Farhan, the Ibrahim foundation's director of research. "There will be violent ructions and eruptions, like Kenya or Zimbabwe or Nigeria, but the trend is there, and it is remarkable. Africans want their rights and, increasingly, they are getting them."

Farhan says that the end of liberation-era politics is having a positive impact on governance today. "Those movements used to say, 'We have the right to stay in power because we are a liberation movement'," she says. But today, "there's a new generation of Africans who are now saying 'No. Show us what you can deliver'," said Farhan. "They are getting their message across. You find autocrats are reincarnating themselves as democrats. They are increasingly no longer in control. It's really interesting. There's a new mood sweeping Africa."

Responding to the report, NIMD / ESARP coordinator Augustine Magolowonde says “To those of us that are investing our efforts and energies in deepening democracy in Africa, these results are a great source of encouragement as they partially indicate that our efforts are possibly bearing fruits. At the same time, however, there is no room for complacency. The fact that we still have some countries in the grey zone should be a great cause of concern. We have a long walk to democracy, and the road ahead has many challenges”.