The Mo Ibrahim Foundation published in January 2023 the 2022 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
The index is based on the latest available date from 2012-2021 for 54 African countries. It draws on a collection of 265 variables. It defines governance as the provision of the political, social, economic, and environmental goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from the state and that a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens.
The report concludes that the overall governance score has flatlined since 2019, and in 2021 much of Africa is less safe and secure and democratic than it was in 2012. Over the last three years (2019-2021), COVID-19 has exacerbated concerning preexisting trends. Without sustained action to reverse these trends, Africa's ability to achieve the global sustainable development goals and the longer term African Union's Agenda 2063 is gravely curtailed.
The continent's worsening security situation and democratic backsliding are all the more concerning given the combined impacts of global, non-African born challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. This is now exacerbated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and its particularly harsh indirect impact on Africa.
For 2021, the highest ranked countries from one to ten were: Mauritius, Seychelles, Tunisia, Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, Senegal, and Morocco. The ten lowest ranked countries from position 45 to 54 were: Libya, Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Somalia, and South Sudan.
