The Second African Governance Report shows marginal progress and urges for scaled up efforts

ECA Press Release No. 47/2009

Addis Ababa, 16 October 2009 (ECA) - African countries have made marginal progress of an average of 2% in the core areas of governance over the last 4 years , says   the second edition of the African Governance Report (AGR II) released recently by the Economic Commission for Africa.

AGRII, an overview of the state of governance in 35 African countries highlights with concern the decline of 3% of the corruption control index. The report explains that national anti-corruption agencies, which have grown in number, are still relatively weak. The legal provisions supporting them are inadequate. They lack autonomy and are subject to undue political interference. AGR II concludes that: ’’Corruption remains the single most important challenge to the eradication of poverty, the creation of predictable and favourable investment environment and general socioeconomic development in Africa’’.

Despite the negative performance on the corruption front,   the overall governance picture for Africa reflected in the report is rather one of progress, although modest. AGR II expert survey shows that countries have achieved progress, even though marginal, in the core indicators of human rights and the rule of law, the effectiveness of the legislature,  the executive and the  judiciary as well as independence of civil society organizations and the media.

Key findings of the report are that the political representation index is stagnating at 65% of good perception by the experts surveyed. Elections are more regular, but still quite flawed and in many countries the quality of the elections remains suspect.

Multiparty democracy remains strong in Africa but the overall performance in this area is mixed. Countries are making progress on the political inclusion front, but the vestiges of authoritarianism are still a threat in party affairs and for the selection of candidates. Incumbent parties are still hostile to opposition parties and the latter do not form competitive blocs. ‘’This situation has not changed since the last report four years ago’’ notes the AGR II.  

The assessment also shows positive trends on the economy. It is reported that pro-investments policies drew a very positive evaluation with an improvement of 6 percentage points as compared to the 2005 performance in the same area. In the same vein, economic management and tax system proved more efficient as the related indexes improved by up to 3 %.

On a very positive note, AGR II underlines the remarkable progress made in the place of women in public life. Globally, more women are represented in national parliaments in African countries than anywhere else in the world. Rwanda tops the list with Mozambique making in the top ten.

But AGR II does more than fault-find. It also provides recommendations on how to deal with some of governance challenges facing African countries. In this respect the report recommends that:

• To combat corruption, governments must give greater attention to anti-corruption agencies by improving the laws establishing them, so they conform to minimum standards set by the UN and the African Union (AU). In addition, they should increase funding for these institutions and ensure they have both administrative and institutional autonomy.

•  To combat election imbalances, electoral authorities need more autonomy, funding and institutional capacity to conduct free, fair and transparent elections.

• To improve human rights and the rule of law, these two aspects need to be internalized by governments at a local level to increase the confidence of citizens.

As was the case in the first edition of the report released in 2005, AGR II combines three research instruments including a national expert opinion panel, a scientific sample household survey and desk research. The scope of the study has however expanded from 28 to 35 African countries.

The African Governance Report is one of the flagship publications of the Economic Commission for Africa which is strongly committed to supporting the vision of improved governance on the continent by conducting a groundbreaking study on the state of governance. The present edition was published by Oxford Press.

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