Dar tops EAC in good governance
DAILY NEWS Reporter
Daily News; Tuesday,October 07, 2008 @00:01
TANZANIA has recorded notable improvement in governance, particularly in fighting graft and promotion of the rule of law and transparency over the past year. The latest index released yesterday by a London-based Mo Ibrahim Foundation shows that between 2005 and 2006 Tanzania improved its overall score to 61.6 out of 100, ranked the first in East Africa.
The index shows that Tanzania improved in three categories; Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; and Human Development. In Safety and Security, Tanzanias score remained consistent, and in Sustainable Economic Opportunity, its score fell slightly.
In East Africa region Tanzania is followed by Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi. But the relative improvement of Tanzanias peers meant that it slipped one place to 15th out of sub-Saharan Africas 48 countries. The most notable improvement was in Participation and Human Rights, where Tanzanias score rose by 2.8 points.
A number of countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), demonstrated strong performance in the Ibrahim Index, with five members ranking in the top ten and a further seven SADC countries ranking in the top half. Within SADC, Tanzania ranks ninth out of 15 countries. Four members of the EAC (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) ranked in the top 20 in the Ibrahim Index.
Africa's small island nations topped the rankings, with Mauritius retaining top spot with 85.1 points out of 100, ahead of the Seychelles and Cape Verde. Fourth and fifth were Botswana and South Africa, while war-torn Somalia remained in last place, dropping more points since 2007 to score 18.9.
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a comprehensive ranking of sub-Saharan African nations according to governance quality. The Ibrahim Index assesses national governance against 57 criteria that capture the quality of services provided to citizens by governments.
The foundation also grants an award for African leadership aimed at encouraging good governance at the highest level. The prize money is around three times of that granted by the Nobel jury. Last year, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano was the first winner of prize, which consists of five million dollars over 10 years and then 200,000 dollars a year.
Besides Robinson, this year's prize committee included former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, former president Benjamin Mkapa and the late Zambian leader Patrick Mwanawasa are among those expected to be this years strong contenders for the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Candidates must have taken office through democratic elections and left their post at the end of their constitutional term. Among the factors to be considered by the jury are economic developments, the fight against corruption, as well as respect for democracy.
There is no good governance in Tanzania and Fisadi Mkapa should not be among the contenders of the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.