Zimbabwe improves on Africa 2014 Index

via Bulawayo24 NEWS | Zimbabwe improves on Africa 2014 Index 05 October 2014

ZIMBABWE moved two points up and is now ranked 46 out of 52 African countries in the 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Central African Republic (CAR) and Somalia.

Zimbabwe scored only 38 points out of 100, while Somalia managed 8,6 points.

Mauritius topped the list followed by Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Seychelles and Namibia.

The countries were measured on four major categories: safety and rule of law; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity; and human development, which had 14 sub-categories.

Zimbabwe is among five countries that had the greatest improvements over the past five years. It improved in all four categories.

It scored 37,7 points in safety and rule of law ranking 45th in that category. In the participation and human rights category Zimbabwe ranked 41st with 37 points, in the sustainable economic opportunity it was 50th with 23,5 points, while in the human development category it was 32nd with 53,9 points.

The other four are Ivory Coast which scored 44,3 points, moving six places up to 40th, Guinea scored 43,3 points up three ranks to 42nd, Niger with 49,4 points is now ranked 29th after moving nine points up, and Senegal moved from 11th to ninth with 64,3 points.

The greatest deterioration was in Egypt now ranked 26th with 51,1 points after dropping 14 ranks, Libya with 42,1 points is now ranked 43rd after moving 16 ranks down, Guinea-Bissau is 48th down from 43rd with 33,2 points, CAR comes at 51st with 24,8 points, and Mali dropped to 28th from 19th.

Mo Ibrahim, founder and chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said: “Of course, we must welcome the fact that 13 out of 52 countries show wide-reaching gains, having improved in overall governance in the political, social and economic governance dimensions over the past five years.

The safety and rule of law category measures the extent to which all individuals are protected from both internal and external threats to peace and the existence of a robust legal system and transparent, effective and accessible institutions within all branches of the state.

The participation and human rights category captures the relationship between government and citizen.

It measures both the extent to which individuals can participate in, and take ownership of the political process and the state’s achievement in guaranteeing the political and social rights of all citizens.

In 2000, Zimbabwe scored 35 points which, by 2009, had dropped to 32,6 points. Slight improvements were registered during the Government of National Unity era in 2010, when Zimbabwe scored 33,3 points. It scored 36,3 points in 2011 and 37 in 2012.