Economies are improving, but rule of law is slipping. The buck now stops with Africa’s leaders | Kenneth Mohammed

Résumé détaillé

The west has spent decades judging Africa’s governance and colonialism is much to blame. But Mo Ibrahim’s latest index offers a different perspective – and some uncomfortable…

The west has spent decades judging Africa’s governance and colonialism is much to blame. But Mo Ibrahim’s latest index offers a different perspective – and some uncomfortable truths

The west has never been short of advice on how Africa should govern itself. It has produced rankings, attached conditions to aid and delivered lectures on corruption, often while its own banks and corporations have profited handsomely from the continent’s governance weaknesses.

So, there was something refreshing about sitting in Cairo, listening to a Sudanese-born, self-made telecommunications entrepreneur and billionaire on why Africans needed to measure their own governments.

At the launch of the 2026 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), now two decades in existence, Mo Ibrahim returned to a question he attributed to Nelson Mandela: “How could Africa be so rich while so many Africans remained poor?” His answer was blunt: “It is governance.”

Yet, what Ibrahim means by governance is considerably more demanding than the narrow assessments so often used to pass judgment on developing countries. The foundation defines it as the provision of the political, social, economic and environmental public goods that citizens have a right to expect from their governments. It asks whether people are safe, children educated, hospitals functioning, women protected, opportunities expanding and leaders held accountable.

That differentiates the IIAG from others. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index measures perceptions of public-sector corruption, not corruption in its entirety. The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators cover six dimensions but also rely on perceptions and expert assessments. They offer useful evidence. Neither, however, should be mistaken for a complete account of how citizens experience governance.

The IIAG is an African-led initiative to ask a broader question. With 16 sub-categories, 96 constituent indicators and coverage of 54 African countries, five…

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