Namibia holds on to governance rankingNamibia has managed to improve its score in all categories of the latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Improvement in all categories 0 Namibia retained its fifth place in the latest edition of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) report, with the overall country score dropping slightly from 70.4 to 69.8 this year. The index shows that of the top ten performing countries, only three - Namibia, Rwanda and Senegal - managed to improve in all categories on which the scores are based.
South Africa dropped to sixth spot and Seychelles moved ahead to take fourth place.
An overall score of 69.8 placed Namibia in the medium-high performance category, which is calculated from 54 to 70.9 points.
The 2016 index is the tenth edition since the IIAG launch in 2006.
The index was created to provide a tool for measuring and monitoring governance performances in African countries, to assess progress and to support development.
According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the latest IIAG “clearly reveals that deteriorating trends in safety and rule of law have held back the continent’s progress in overall governance over the last decade.”
The report found that almost half of Africa’s 54 countries have recorded their worst score in the safety and rule of law category in the last three years, although Namibia bucked this trend with an improvement.
On the positive side, the report found that over the past decade, the continental average score in overall governance improved by one point and that since 2006, 37 countries, home to 70% of African citizens, improved in the overall score.
In the safety and rule of law category, Namibia achieved fourth place with a score of 76.1, placing it below Cabo Verde (77.1), Mauritius (80.8) and Botswana (81.9). In the accountability sub-category in the safety and rule of law category, Namibia scored 60.4 points.
In the category of participation and human rights, Namibia ranked second with a score of 76.1. Somalia has the lowest ranking with 13.7 points.
In the sustainable economic opportunity category, Namibia scored 62.2 out of 100, putting the country in seventh place.
Namibia scored 64.7 points in the human development category, putting it in tenth place.
According to Graham Hopwood, director at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Namibia’s progress in all the IIAG categories is a positive indication that “we are moving in the right direction.”
Nevertheless, Hopwood said trends identified in the latest index raised the concern that many African countries are stagnating or making little progress.
“So, Namibia is becoming an outlier partly because it is doing the right things, but also partly because its peers are not making progress. This adds strength to the argument that Namibia should strive for even greater transparency and accountability so that we can present ourselves as a role model to Africa and internationally,” Hopwood said.
Based on the index, Hopwood said Namibia should focus urgent attention on improvements in SOE governance, the introduction of a system for MPs and senior officials to declare their assets, the introduction of a law on access to information, and better accountability mechanisms in government such as workable and timely performance agreements.
As defined by the IIAG, governance is defined as the provision of the political, social and economic public goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from their state.
The report on the latest index emphasises that it focuses on “measuring outputs and outcomes of policy, rather than declarations of intent, de jure statutes and levels of expenditure.”