Africa’s Best-Governed Countries

Africa’s best-governed countries

The effectiveness of a government in fighting corruption and the standard of living of citizens are fundamental indicators of a well-governed country. Both are foundational to security, peace/political stability and the flourishing of citizens. True, other factors such as government debt as a share of the country’s GDP and the gender gap are also important, but let’s keep things simple. The Human Development Index and the Corruption Perception Index are my go-to tools here.

The Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index that analyses measures of health, education and income in a country to generate an index of human development. This measure can then be used to compare one country with another. Like all measures, it isn’t perfect, but for this analysis, it will do. The data used to generate the index comes from bodies such as UNESCO, the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD.

Using 2019 data (2020 reporting), the following 10 countries in the continent have the highest HDI numbers: (drum roll…)

1. Mauritius – HDI ‘very high’ (0.804), with an average annual HDI growth (2010-2019) of 0.76%. Note that even though Mauritius lies between the continents of Africa and Asia, it is considered to be part of Africa.
2. The Republic of Seychelles – HDI ‘high’ (0.796), with an average annual HDI growth (2010-2019) of 0.46. Seychelles also has the highest nominal per capita GDP in Africa.
3. Algeria – HDI ‘high’ (0.748), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 0.41%
4. Tunisia – HDI ‘high’ (0.740), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 37%
5. Botswana – HDI ‘high’ (0.735), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 1.15%
6. Libya – HDI ‘high’ (0.724), with a fall in average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of -1.08%
7. South Africa – HDI ‘high’ (0.709), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 0.73%
8. Egypt – HDI ‘high’ (0.707), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 63%
9. Gabon – HDI ‘high’ (0.703), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 0.84%
10. Morocco – HDI ‘medium’ (0.686), with an average annual HDI growth (2019-2020) of 1.20%

Before you start investigating a move to Mauritius, here are the figures for the Corruption Percentage Index

Corruption Percentage Index

Corruption can poison your sense of freedom, eradicate your wealth, affect your health and even your life. Transparency.org is an independent, non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that advocates for anti-corruption policy on a global level, engaging with stakeholders around the world and conducting investigations into corruption around the world.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranks countries by the perception of public sector corruption using data aggregated from qualified data sources. A minimum of three sources are needed to assess a country. Some of the data sources used for the most recent CPI data included the African Development Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment 2018, the  Bertelsmann Stiftung Sustainable Governance Indicators 2018 and the Economist Intelligence Unit Country Risk Service 2019.

The emerging insights from Transparency’s work are valuable, for example that corruption is more prevalent in areas where money can flow freely into political campaigns and where the moneyed have a disproportionate influence on governments. Another is that Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest-scoring region with an average of 32, which paints a dismal picture of efforts to tackle the scourge of corruption.

Top 10 African countries by CPI (least to most corrupt by CPI)

1. Seychelles. Global rank 27
2. Botswana. Global rank 34
3. Cabo Verde. Global rank 41
4. Rwanda. Global rank 51
5. Namibia. Global rank 56
6. Mauritius. Global rank 56
7. Sao Tome and Principe. Global rank 64
8. Senegal. Global rank 66
9. South Africa. Global rank 70
10. Tunisia. Global rank 74

Combining the two sets of data (note – this is *not* an economic analysis) here are my top five best-governed countries in Africa – in no particular order:

• Seychelles
• Botswana
• Mauritius
• Tunisia
• South Africa

Any surprises?