Seychelles has been ranked first on governance out of 11 east African countries – and fourth overall out of 52 nations on the continent – by the 2012 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).

The index shows generally positive trends in governance on the continent, but also unfavourable shifts in some of Africa’s regional powerhouses and a mixed performance across the regions.
 
It places Mauritius first overall and also top among the southern African countries.

The regional groupings are those used by the African Development Bank and place Seychelles with Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia.

The 2012 IIAG gives full details of Seychelles’ performance across four categories of governance: safety & rule of law, participation & human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.

This country has scored 73 out of 100 points for overall governance and higher than the regional average for East Africa which is 47. The continental average is 51 points.

Seychelles got its highest score in the Human Development category (91) and its lowest score in the Sustainable Economic Opportunity category (64).

At sub-category level Seychelles' highest rank is in infrastructure, education and health (1st) and lowest is in public management (30th).

Between 2000 and 2011 Seychelles' overall governance score improved.
For safety & rule of law we scored 75 points, 68 for accountability, 100 for national security, 78 for “participation & human rights,” 74 for gender, 64 for sustainable economic opportunity, 55 for public management, 91 for human development, 74 for welfare, 99 for education and 100 for health.

East Africa has been ranked fourth out of five African regions in overall governance and in the safety & rule of law and sustainable economic opportunity categories. In the other two categories of the IIAG - participation & human rights and human development - East Africa is ranked 3rd out of five.

East Africa scores below the continental average in all four categories and 12 out of 14 sub-categories of the IIAG. Gender and rural sector are the only sub-categories in which East Africa ranks above the continental average.

East Africa is ranked bottom in two sub-categories: national security and public management.
“The 2012 IIAG shows that governance in Africa has improved since 2000. In the last 12 years, at the continental level, there have been improvements in 11 out the 14 sub-categories of the IIAG,” says the report, released earlier this month.

“The largest improvements are shown in the sub-categories of health, rural sector, and gender, with all indicators showing improvements since 2000. At indicator level, of the 88 indicators included in the IIAG, the largest improvements appear in cross-border tensions, core international human rights conventions, legislation on violence against women, ratio of external debt service to exports, digital connectivity and anti-retroviral treatment provision.”

“While governance continues to improve in many countries, some of Africa’s regional powerhouses – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – have shown unfavourable governance performance since 2006. Over the past six years, all four countries have declined in two of the four main IIAG categories – safety & rule of law and participation & human rights. Each of these four countries deteriorated the most in the participation sub-category, which assesses the extent to which citizens have the freedom to take part in the political process.

“South Africa and Kenya have also registered declines in sustainable economic opportunity. Nigeria, West Africa’s powerhouse, has for the first time this year fallen into the bottom ten governance performers on the continent,” the report says.

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