African public officials accountability has deteriorated, report reveals

Dar es Salaam. Over the past decade, the African average for Accountability of Public Officials has deteriorated, with the pace of decline worsening over the last five years, a 2018 Ibrahim Forum Report reveals.

The Report titled: ‘Public Service in Africa’ that was released in April 20 by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation (MIF) further highlights that a majority of African citizens are in favour of paying for public services.

Filling the void left by public services, private security, private education, and private health are rising exponentially, with the risk of widening inequalities on the continent, according to the report.

The report further assesses the current state of African public services and their key challenges, both from the job attractiveness side and the delivery side.

Moreover, the report will inform the discussion of the 2018 Ibrahim Forum, taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, on Saturday 28 April.

The Forum will focus on Public Service in Africa: its key relation to good governance and effective leadership, new challenges and current shortcomings, and the ways and means to strengthen it and make it appealing to the next generation.

Backing up the report highlights, MIF Chair, Mo Ibrahim has called on public servants in African countries to embrace accountability and enhancing commitment, saying public service is the pillar of governance.

“Without strong public services and committed public servants, there will be no efficient delivery of expected public goods and services, nor implementation of any commitment, however strongly voiced,” he made the remarks in the statement issued and released to media outlets by the foundation on Friday, April 20.

For the first time, this year’s Forum will be preceded on Friday 27 by a ‘Next Generation Forum’ where the young generation will discuss as citizens what they expect from their public services, and as potential jobseekers the attractiveness, or lack of, of civil service, at national, local or regional level.

Outcomes will be shared the following day at the Ibrahim Forum by their representatives who will serve as ‘challengers’ by sitting as panellists in each of the sessions.

The debates will be moderated by Nancy Kacungira, Presenter, BBC News, and Ngaire Woods, Dean, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University.