Search results for:
indicator
64 results found
Ibrahim Index of African Governance: Citizens' Voices - Overall Governance
Why are citizens’ voices important for ensuring good governance? Citizens are key actors in governance in general by the right given to them to choose their leaders through an electoral process and the power they have to contest the decisions made by these leaders. Therefore, governance performance in any given country must reflect the citizens… Read more
Ghana, 61 years after independence: challenges and prospects
Last week, Ghana celebrated 61 years of independence from British rule. On 6 March 1957, Ghana’s founding president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, declared: “at long last, Ghana your beloved country is free forever” to the excitement of men, women and children gathered at the old Polo grounds in Accra. However, over six decades on, has Ghana lived up to her… Read more
Violence against women: the shadow pandemic for which there is no vaccine
Adopting the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women in 1993, the United Nations General Assembly highlighted how violence against women is a fundamental obstacle to the achievement of equality, development and peace. With the 2003 AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of… Read more, What is violence against women? The AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa defines violence against women as “all acts perpetrated against women which cause or could cause them physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to take such acts; or… Read more, Violence against women in the SDGs and Agenda 2063 SDG 5 is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. It contains two targets that explicitly focus on eradicating violence: Target 5.2: “Eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and… Read more, However, almost 30 years after the adoption of the UN declaration, the world is still far from being a safe place for women. Levels of gender-based violence are high and have remained largely unchanged over the last decade. The global cost of violence against women are estimated at a staggering USD 1.5 trillion. Alarmingly, the… Read more, Estimate for WHO Africa region which does not include Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia which are part of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. , The prevalence of life-time intimate partner violence in Africa is highest in DR Congo (47%), Equatorial Guinea (46%) and Uganda (45%). In only three countries (Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde and Comoros) have fewer than 20% of women been subjected to intimate partner violence. African countries: Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls… Read more, Tragically, such violence can lead to the killing of women. In 2017, 87,000 women were killed worldwide by an intimate partner or family member. Globally, the risk for women of being killed by a partner or a family member is highest in Africa, with a homicide rate of 3.1 per 100,000 women. More than two-thirds (69%) of all women… Read more, These figures predate the impact of COVID-19. Recent research by UN Women shows that in Eswatini, South Africa and Uganda, at least 70% of women have felt an increase in violence since the start of the pandemic. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that COVID-19 is likely to cause a one-third reduction… Read more, However, even in these two cases, the legal framework does not take a comprehensive approach to protecting women. For example, in CAR the law does not include provisions for the prevention of domestic violence. In the majority of African countries (31), the legal framework does not encompass all forms of violence. In 21 African… Read more
Potential unfulfilled: Africa’s agriculture and the Rural Sector performance in the 2017 IIAG
Feed Africa is the second of the five development goals, also known as the High 5s, that the President of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, outlined in his inaugural address in September 2015. As the most important sector in Africa’s economy, contributing approximately to 15.0% of its GDP, agriculture has an enormous potential… Read more
Public Service in Africa: four key messages from the 2018 Ibrahim Forum
At the 2018 Ibrahim Forum, held in April in Kigali, Rwanda, prominent policy-makers, experts and civil society representatives from Africa and beyond discussed challenges and opportunities for public service in Africa. This topic is key to African governance and leadership, as without strong public services and committed public servants there will… Read more
Key Findings in the Security & Rule of Law IIAG category
Security & Rule of Law: the fastest declining IIAG category The trajectory of the Security & Rule of Law IIAG category has hindered governance progress over the decade of data covered by the 2022 IIAG data set (2012-2021). Although Security & Rule of Law remains the second highest scoring category in 2021, with an African average… Read more, At the country level, Seychelles has shown the largest improvement over the decade (+11.9), while South Sudan has registered the largest deterioration (-13.1). In 2021, the top five highest-scoring countries in the Security & Rule of Law category were: Seychelles, Mauritius, Botswana, Cabo Verde, and Namibia whereas South Sudan, Somalia,… Read more
Gender equality
Although major successes have been recorded with regards to the pursuit of a gender-equal world, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail the progress made. The pandemic has had severe consequences on women’s health, economic and social wellbeing due to the intensification of prevailing inequalities and vulnerabilities. Despite… Read more, While Political Power & Representation of Women is the 10th most improved indicator across all 79 IIAG indicators, Laws on Violence against Women is the most declined of all indicators on the African average level. However, increasing improvements in the political power and representation of women and their access to public services and a… Read more, Seychelles claims the top spot in the ranking table for the Gender sub-category with a score of 82.5 in 2019, followed by Rwanda and Mauritius. Equatorial Guinea sits at the bottom of the ranking table, preceded by Somalia and Djibouti. The two lowest scoring countries in Gender are also the most declined and most improved countries over the… Read more
Access to and quality of education: How is Africa progressing?
I’ve spent a lifetime championing girls’ and women’s learning, as a former Minister of Education in Guinea and a former Assistant Director General for Education in UNESCO. And have worked tirelessly to promote access to and quality of education in my home country, across the African continent and in the world at large. The Foundation’s latest… Read more
Africa’s job market: what are the challenges?
The 2019 Ibrahim Forum Report highlighted the links between demography, economic prospects and mobility. In a context of a booming youth population and a decade of sustained economic growth, what are the current challenges faced by Africa’s job market?Despite strong macroeconomic growth during the period 2008-2017, the 2018 Ibrahim Index of… Read more
Rule of Law and Equal Access to Justice
According to the World Justice Project (WJP), the COVID-19 pandemic has hit at a time of a global rule of law crisis and principles of good governance have eroded in many countries over the past years. WJP identifies four areas of rule of law that have directly been affected by COVID-19: Access to justice for all Accountable… Read more, Meanwhile, despite a positive trajectory over the decade, both Rule of Law & Justice and Accountability & Transparency have shown warning signs in the latest five years. Progress in Accountability & Transparency has stalled, leading it to become the IIAG’s lowest scoring sub-category in 2019. Rule of Law & Justice has even… Read more, Five countries have improved in all these sub-categories both over the 10-year as well as over the 5-year period: Angola, Gambia, Morocco, Seychelles and Sierra Leone. Seven countries have declined in all these sub-categories over both time periods: Comoros, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Namibia and Zambia. , Equal access to justice under threat Over the past decade, judicial processes on the continent, including access to and enforcement of justice, as well as the fairness and timeliness of processes have deteriorated and equality before the law has also worsened. , At the same time, the provision of equal civil liberties has declined for women, low income groups, rural dwellers and different marginalised social groups. Additionally, discrimination protection mechanisms remain weak despite improvements over the decade. Protection against Discrimination is the IIAG’s lowest scoring indicator (out of 79) in… Read more
