As security issue intensifies, governance deteriorates in half of Africa’s nations – report

October 25, 2024 | 10:30 AM ET |

According to the 2024 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), nearly half of Africans live in nations where governance has gotten worse over the last ten years as advancements are undermined by declining security.

Mo Ibrahim, founder of the Ibrahim Foundation, highlighted a growing “arc of instability,” pointing to the security and safety challenges as the main factors behind the decline. In an interview with Reuters, Ibrahim explained that poor governance, including corruption and marginalization, often fuels violence and conflict, as seen in recent coups in West Africa and the ongoing war in Sudan.

The new sobering report notes that after years of progress, Africa’s overall governance has stalled, grinding to a halt in 2022, for almost half of the continent’s population due to a deepening security crisis and shrinking democracy.

Twenty-one countries hosting 47.9 percent of the population recorded worse overall governance levels in 2023 compared to where they were in 2014. Eleven of them recorded increasing deteriorating levels over the second part of the decade.

These include Botswana, Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda all of which play home to almost a third (29.3 percent) of the population.

“This concerning overall trend is driven by the ongoing deterioration of the Security & Rule of Law dimension, which has been the most deteriorated category since 2014, as well as, to a lesser extent, by the irregular trajectory of participation, Rights & Inclusion, between 2014 and 2023. Within these categories, deterioration is worst in both Security & Safety and Participation, while Rights and Accountability & Transparency have also declined, but to a lesser extent,” the report shows.

Angola, Benin, Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Seychelles, Sierra Leone and Tanzania were ranked as slowing in improvement

Algeria, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Zimbabwe were ranked as having warning signs as Cameroon, Comoros, DR Congo, Mali, Namibia, Niger and South Africa recorded slowing deterioration.

Those that ranked positively included; Congo Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Somalia, Togo and Zambia which recorded increasing improvement, and Burundi, Lesotho and South Sudan that are said to be bouncing back.

Seychelles has overtaken Mauritius in 2020, moving into the 1st rank. Seychelles is both the best-performing and most improved country in the whole continent.