Tanzania improves in governance, Mo Index says

Mo Ibrahim Foundation, chair Mo Ibrahim.

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s overall governance performance has improved in the last nine years, but there has been a decrease in sustainable economic opportunities, the Mo Ibrahim Index for African Governance Report for 2019 has shown.

Improvements were seen in the components of safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, as well as human development.

The index and report also show that overall governance increased between 2008 and 2017, whereby the country was ranked 14 out of 54 countries, scoring 58.5 per cent.

In East Africa, Tanzania comes third behind Rwanda - which was ranked eighth, with 64.3 per cent - and Kenya which was ranked 11th with 59.8 per cent. Uganda was ranked fourth among EAC member states after scoring 55 per cent while Burundi and South Sudan were on the bottom of the list with 39.8 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.

On safety and rule of law, Tanzania improved the score by 1.4 per cent to 63.8 per cent ranked 14 among 54 due to improvement on transparency and accountability, personal safety but there was a decline in the national security component.

According to the report, the improvement was also recorded on participation and human rights by 2.4 per cent during the last nine years to 62.1 per cent and was ranked 16 out of the surveyed countries.

However, there was a decline in the area of sustainable economic opportunity by 2.4 per cent to 54.1 per cent placing Tanzania at 14th position among the surveyed countries.

The decrease of sustainable economic opportunity was due to decrease of business environment, rural sector, public management, but it improved on infrastructure.

On human development, the country managed to improve its index by 3.4 per cent scoring 54.2 per cent at 24th position.

The improvement of human development was due to improvement of welfare and health. However, there was a decrease in the education index because of quality.

Commenting on the report, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, chair Mo Ibrahim said data is an essential foundation for effective policy-making and resource mobilisation.

Mr Ibrahim urged African governments and partners to step up efforts to close ‘data gaps’ in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) tracking and ensure that the African Union Agenda 2063 can be monitored and measured.

“Without data, we drive blind – policies are misdirected and progress on the road to development is stunted. We must all act urgently to close the ‘data gap’, if indeed we aim to leave no one behind,” he said.

He welcomed continued efforts to improve governance, which is crucial to achieving sustainable development.

However, he said he was deeply worried by the inability to accurately monitor progress against these targets on the continent. The report shares new insights on progress towards the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ SDGs.

It points to where policy efforts can be focussed to tackle current governance challenges. It highlights the urgency of addressing the ‘data gap’ in Africa to ensure progress can be assessed and shortfalls addressed.

Mr Ibrahim noted that this was a critical time as Africa prepared to enter the last decade of the SDG Agenda and is halfway through the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan of AU Agenda.

Overall Governance scores in the Ibrahim Index of African Goverance (IIAG), the most comprehensive dataset on African governance, point to a strong correlation with performance in the Africa SDG Index, underscoring the importance of good governance to sustainable development in Africa.