EUMAM MOZ gives lecture on healthcare challenges in Mozambique
Mozambique maintains 26th place in Ibrahim Index of African Governance
4:05 CAT | 25 Jan 2023
Image: Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Mozambique has maintained its 26th position in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) 2022, but the decline recorded in the last decade is slowing down, the report published on Tuesday indicates.
According to the study, prepared by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Mozambique showed greater progress in the category of ‘Human Development’, but this trend is slowing down in ‘Foundations for Economic Opportunity’.
On the contrary, the country is deteriorating in the categories of ‘Participation, Rights & Inclusion’ and ‘Security & Rule of Law’, more so in the second.
Insecurity related to terrorist attacks by Islamic extremist groups in the north of the country and the high prevalence of child marriage contribute to poor performance, says the study.
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance annually measures the quality of governance in 54 African countries by compiling statistical data from the previous year.
Despite having registered slight progress (1.1 points) in the decade 2012 to 2021, the improvement that the IIAG had been registering since 2014 has stagnated since 2019.
The slowdown, which coincides with the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, is mainly due to the increase in armed conflicts, repression of civilians and democratic setbacks in general, which have caused deteriorations in terms of security, respect for the rule of law, participation and civil rights.
These setbacks have undone advances such as more economic opportunities and improved human development, particularly in access to health care.
As for Portuguese-speaking African countries, Angola has made most progress in the IIAG, while Guinea-Bissau performed worst.
Angola moved up three spots from the 2020 report and now ranks 40th. position, with signs of increasing progress.
The country continues to grow in the categories ‘Security and Rule of Law’, ‘Participation, Rights and Inclusion’, ‘Foundations for Economic Opportunities’ and ‘Human Development’, but still shows no signs of improvements in Overall Governance.
However, the IIAG concludes that there has been “an improvement in terms of transparency and accountability”.
Guinea-Bissau shows worrying deterioration
In the opposite direction, Guinea-Bissau dropped three positions and now ranks 44th, in a group together with Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia and Rwanda, which ceased to progress or reversed their progressive trend.
Guinea-Bissau made significant progress in the categories of ‘Participation, rights and inclusion’, ‘Security and the rule of law’ and ‘Human development’, but registered a sharp deterioration in ‘Foundations for economic opportunities’.
São Tomé and Príncipe, which had ranked 12th, moved up one place to 11th, although progress in the ‘Human Development’ category is slowimng.
The archipelago saw significant improvements in the categories of ‘Participation, Rights and Inclusion’, but declined in the categories of ‘Foundations for Economic Opportunity’ and ‘Security and Rule of Law’.
Cape Verde among top five, but dropped to 4th
Cape Verde remains the only Portuguese-speaking African country in the top five of the index, but this year dropped to fourth place, from second in 2020.
The IIAG points out that Cape Verde has seen a sharp decline in the last five years in the categories of ‘Foundations for Economic Opportunities’ and ‘Participation, Rights and Inclusion’, while in the categories of ‘Human development’ and ‘Security and Rule of Law’ deterioration, while less worrisome, is slower.
The IIAG annually measures the quality of governance in 54 African countries by compiling statistical data from the previous year.
The first five places in the general classification are occupied by Mauritius, Seychelles, Tunisia, Cape Verde and Botswana.
The five lowest-scoring countries are the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan.
Source: Lusa
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