Africa is still faced with myriad of security, economic, and governance issues in 2024—leaving the countries exposed to imperialism, imbalanced opportunities at the global stage, and military coups. Over the last decade, there has been a slight improvement in overall governance in some countries. Some have, however, deteriorated over the period.
According to the 2024 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), the overall governance for 52.1% of Africa’s population in 2023 is better than in 2014, a decade ago. However, there has been no good improvement recorded in Africa’s overall governance since 2018.
The 2024 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), released by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, provides an in-depth assessment of governance across African countries, covering the period from 2014 to 2023. The data was released on October 23, 2024, and is available to the public on their website.
The IIAG index evaluates various dimensions of governance through a set of modalities and indicators classified into four main categories: security & rule of law, participation, rights & inclusion, foundations for economic opportunity, and human development.
Despite the marginal improvement in the last 10 years, over 77% of Africans live in countries where security and democratic conditions have drastically declined. Countries like Mauritius, Botswana, and Tunisia, despite leading in the ranking, have notable deteriorated in governance over the past decade.
The average governance score in 2023 is 49.3 out of 100, indicating a marginal input in governance progress since 2022 and the need for improvement on all grouped categories. Seychelles is the most improved in the last decade, scoring 75.3% overall. However, Tunisia presents a severe devaluation at -4.7, scoring 61.2% over the respective duration.
More than half of the countries improved their overall governance, while 21 deteriorated over the decade. Some of the 13 notable countries, including Morocco, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Egypt, and the Congo Republic, are showing significant improvement.
Botswana, Mauritius, and Tunisia, despite being among the top 10 countries, have shown an increasing deteriaration over the last decade. Sudan, currently embroiled in internal conflict, Uganda, Nigeria, and Mozambique are among the deteriorating ones.
Algeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cabo Verde, and Zimbabwe are among the 11 countries showing warning signs. Burundi, Lesotho, and South Sudan are, however, bouncing back, an indication of a slight improvement in governance on their side.
There has been a slow improvement of governance in Kenya, Mauritania, Syechelles, Angola, Benin, Liberia, Benin, Tanzania, Djibouti and Sierra Leone. Seychelles have climbed, taking over from Mauritius with a +10 points gain from the 7th position rank in 2014.
