Rwanda Governance Among Ten Best in Africa

Professor Anastase Shyaka,CEO Rwanda Governance Board

The Mo Ibrahim governance report has placed Rwanda on ninth position in good governance achievement.

Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) is an annual report that measures outcomes of policy in good governance.

It has been published since 2007, by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an organization which brands itself as supporting leadership in Africa.

In the 2016 report released on November 20^th in Dakar – Senegal, Mauritius is leading the top ten of best performers with 81.4 points, followed by Seychelles (73.4), Botswana (72.7), Cape Verde (72.2), Namibia (71.2), South Africa (70.1), Tunisia (65.5), Ghana (65.0), Rwanda (63.9), and Senegal (61.6).

According to the report, Rwanda’s scoop indicates a steady growth in a ten year trend from 2007- 2016 rated +8.7 and an average growth trend at +0.97 annually.

Rwanda scored top other African countries in five of 14 indicators- which include business environment (83.0) rural sector (83.6), welfare (79.2), accountability (72.1) and gender equality (87.3).

Rwanda also scored 86.7 in health coming on 4th position and 5th in personal safety.

Professor Anastase Shyaka, the CEO of RGB said that these indicators changes the negative image of what others think of Rwanda.

“When you compare to the previous years you find that Rwanda has sealed its position in the indicators and no doubt the index shows it clearly,” Shyaka said.

This steady improvement has, for example, seen Rwanda rated the top country globally in promoting women’s rights and equality with over 63% of the lawmakers being women.

In the Category of safety and rule of law Rwanda held 12th position after Senegal and São Tomé & Príncipe and followed by Benin and Tanzania.

However, Silas Sinyigaya, the executive secretary of Rwanda Civil Society Platform said that the score in this segment was minimal compared to what the country has achieved.

This score is for a country in a certain form of historical era, we have people working, having rights to health, property and freedom of association; and don’t deserve this score,” Sinyigaya said.

In 2014, the Rwanda Governance Board accused the  Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) report of discrepancies and not indicative of the real facts on the ground.

That year, Rwanda emerged 11th out of 52 countries, with an overall governance score of 60.4%, four places better than  year before.

Apparently Rwanda has come a long way from 31st out 53 African countries in 2010 to claim a steady position among the top ten countries in the Mo Ibrahim Africa ranking.