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16 Countries In Africa That Mo Ibrahim Ranks Highest For Good Governance

16 Countries In Africa That Mo Ibrahim Ranks Highest For Good Governance

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He’s an African hero — the Bill Gates of Africa.

Sudanese-British businessman Mo Ibrahim got rich on telecommunications, and he has invested millions of his fortune in his belief that nothing is more important to African development than good governance. Africans love him for it. Ibrahim is so popular he gets mobbed more than rock stars.

At meetings in Ghana for anti-poverty organization ONE, Ibrahim traveled with co-founder Bono, lead singer of U2. “People were elbowing me out of the way to get to Mo,” Bono said, according to Kenauletta.com. Even at the airport, taxi drivers and baggage handlers shouted Ibrahim’s name and surrounded him.

After Ibrahim’s telecommunications company, Celtel, sold in 2005 for $3.4 billion, Ibrahim set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

In addition to business acumen, Ibrahim values the rule of law. “We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime,” he said in a HuffingtonPost report. “The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are.”

Since 2007, Ibrahim has been recognizing African heads of state with the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, an honorarium that pays $5 million. Winners have included Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique; Festus Mogae, Botswana;
Pedro Pires, Cabo Verde; and Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibia. They were recognized for delivering security, health, education and economic development to their constituents and democratically transfering power to their successors.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance assesses the quality of governance in African countries. It was compiled by combining more than 100 variables from more than 30 independent African and global sources.

Governance is defined by the foundation as the provision of the political, social and
economic goods that a citizen has the right to expect from his or her state,
and that a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens.

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance assesses progress under four main categories: safety and rule of law; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity;
and human development. Data covers a range of governance elements from infrastructure and freedom of expression, to sanitation and property rights.

In the 2014 report on African governance, 39 countries improved over the past five years and 13 deteriorated for overall governance, according to the Foundation. The countries where things got worse include Egypt, Libya, Guinea-Bissau, CAR, Mali, Benin, Eritrea, Mozambique, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Gambia and Burundi.

Health, participation and human rights were the categories in African governance that showed the most improvement in the last five years. However, safety and rule of law took the biggest hits,  along with a deterioration in accountability, the report found.

There was improvement in cross-border tensions, antiretroviral drug treatment,
and legislation on violence against women. However African banks deteriorated, as did
domestic armed conflict and gender equality in the workplace.

Of the 52 countries on the African governance index, the bottom-ranking three are Somalia, No. 52; CAR No. 51; and Eritrea, No. 50.

Below we’ve listed the highest-ranking countries: Mo Ibrahim’s 16 top-ranking African countries for governance.

Sources: MoIbrahimFoundationKenauletta.comHuffingtonPost

0,,17647741_303,00 Elections in Malawi, 2014. Photo: dw.de
Elections in Malawi, 2014. Photo: dw.de

16. Malawi

155464378 Maasai tribe, Northern Tanzania. Photo: Niels Busch, Getty
Maasai tribe, Northern Tanzania. Photo: Niels Busch, Getty

15. Tanzania

Morocco voters turn in their ballots in Rabat, 2011. Photo: Abdeljalili Bounhar, AlJazeera
Morocco voters turn in their ballots in Rabat, 2011. Photo: Abdeljalili Bounhar, AlJazeera

14. Morocco

462108000 Supporters of Zambian Patriotic Front presidential candidate Edgar Lungu celebrate in the streets after Lungu won the country's presidential race in Lusaka, Zambia on Jan. 24, 2014. Photo: Salim Dawood, AFP/Getty
Supporters of Zambian Patriotic Front presidential candidate Edgar Lungu celebrate in the streets after Lungu won the country’s presidential race in Lusaka, Zambia on Jan. 24, 2014. Photo: Salim Dawood, AFP/Getty

13. Zambia

146778-004-43FFA118 Patrice Trovoada, primie minister of Sao Tome and Principe, 2010. Photo: Mario Cruz, EPA/Landov
Patrice Trovoada, primie minister of Sao Tome and Principe, 2010. Photo: Mario Cruz, EPA/Landov

12. São Tomé & Príncipe

In Rwanda's 2010 presidential election, Paul Kagame won 90% percent of votes. Photo: jambonews.net
In Rwanda’s 2010 presidential election, Paul Kagame won 90% percent of votes. Photo: jambonews.net

11. Rwanda

Lesotho voters in Machache district, 40 miles east of the capital Maseru, May 26, 2012. Photo: Jerome Delay/AP
Lesotho voters in Machache district, 40 miles east of the capital Maseru, May 26, 2012. Photo: Jerome Delay/AP

10. Lesotho

F5FD143D-65FC-4E88-B5D0-0EFA3806A7EF_w640_r1_s Protesters rally against President Abdoulaye Wade running for a third term in Dakar, Senegal, 2012. Photo: AP
Protesters rally against President Abdoulaye Wade running for a third term in Dakar, Senegal, 2012. Photo: AP

9. Senegal

Torn poster of longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was forced to step down after the Tunisian Revolution in January, 2011. Photo: AP
Torn poster of longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was forced to step down after the Tunisian Revolution in January, 2011. Photo: Getty

8. Tunisia

Supporters of Ghanaian opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party, Kasoa, Dec. 1, 2012. Photo: Getty
Supporters of Ghanaian opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party, Kasoa, Dec. 1, 2012. Photo: Getty

7. Ghana

Namibians with flag during elections. Photo: Dario Mitidieri/Getty
Namibians with flag during elections. Photo: Dario Mitidieri/Getty

6. Namibia

Electoral officers are sworn in at the Seychelles Electoral Commission. Photo: seychellesnewsagency
Electoral officers are sworn in at the Seychelles Electoral Commission. Photo: seychellesnewsagency

5. Seychelles

South Africa elections 2014. Photo: tvcnews.tv
South Africa elections 2014. Photo: tvcnews.tv

4. South Africa

Voters wait under umbrellas in Botswana, on Oct. 24 2014. Photo: Monirul Bhuiyan/AFP/Getty
Voters wait under umbrellas in Botswana, on Oct. 24 2014. Photo: Monirul Bhuiyan/AFP/Getty

3. Botswana

A 2010 rally in Cape Verde with portraits of Amilcar Cabral and Aristides Pereira, leaders of the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Photo: Yutaka Nagata/U.N.
A 2010 rally in Cape Verde with portraits of Amilcar Cabral and Aristides Pereira, leaders of the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Photo: Yutaka Nagata/U.N.

2. Cabo Verde

ameenah-mauritius-600x319 Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the first female president of Mauritius. Photo:blog.timesunion.com
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the first female president of Mauritius. Photo:blog.timesunion.com

1. Mauritius