Govt rebuts Mo Ibrahim index on security, rights

The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) has challenged the latest Mo Ibrahim Index on African Governance (IIAG) 2013 over what it calls capturing misleading data on Rwanda’s security, participation and rights.

The IIAG report, released yesterday, ranked Rwanda low in the sub-categories national security (49th out of 52) scoring 50.4 per cent, participation (46th) with a score of 16.0 and rights (45th) scoring 27.5 per cent.

Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, Anastase Shyaka, the RGB chief executive, said the Foundation got wrong data on Rwanda’s security, participation and rights, adding that the data does not reflect what is on the ground.

“If there is anything Rwanda has improved in the last couple of years, it is national security, rights and participation; these are areas we can’t debate on. There is no way the Foundation can report Rwanda as the least country in security when our territory is safe and we have no internally displaced people’s camps, ” he said.

Prof. Shyaka said the Mo Ibrahim Foundation did not capture what the country is at the moment.

He said for the last many years, the Foundation has been capturing wrong, unreliable data on Rwanda because they rely on data providers who are not on the ground.

“I was in London last week and had a chat with the Foundation’s officials who confessed to me that they have challenges when it comes to getting reliable information on Rwanda because the people they rely on are not doing enough,” Prof. Shyaka said.

Fair share

Despite this, the Mo Ibrahim Governance Index, published annually, ranked Rwanda among top five ‘most improved’ in 2013 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

“Rwanda has showed year-on-year progress since 2000, the biggest improvement in the category of Human Development especially in the areas of education and health,” the report reads.

The IIAG reveals that governance in Rwanda improved significantly since 2000. Overall, Rwanda ranks 15th out of 52 African countries surveyed.

Mozambique ranked top, scoring 82.9 per cent, followed by Botswana (76.6 per cent) and Cape Verde in the third position with a score of 76.7 per cent.

The survey says Rwanda and Angola are the only two countries within the 2013 IIAG to have shown consistent overall governance improvements since 2000.

Rwanda made the list of the IIAG’s top five ‘most improved’ countries along with Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Burundi, all post-conflict countries.

The 2013 IIAG provides full details of Rwanda’s performance across four categories of governance: Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.

The country was ranked first in the category of gender with 90.2 percentage score, business environment (2nd) scoring 84.7 per cent and rural sector (3rd).

The 2013 IIAG reveals that 94 per cent of Africans, including those in Rwanda, live in a country that has experienced overall governance improvement since 2000.

The 6 per cent of people living in a country that has experienced governance deterioration since 2000 live in Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya and Mali.

The report shows Rwanda scored 57.8 out of 100, higher than the African average (51.6). This means the country has improved by plus-10.9 since 2000, ranks 1st in the East African Community, followed by Tanzania in 17th position on the continental level (56.9), Uganda in third position (EAC) and 18th out 52 (56.0), Kenya 21st, and fourth in EAC (53.6 per cent), while Burundi came last in EAC and 40th out of 52 (43.8 percent).

“We have concurred with them about having challenges in getting reliable data in some of the indicators from reliable sources. We have kept telling them that all their data on Rwanda is fraud and we are happy to see there is a beginning in capturing real data on Rwanda but we hope they should have done it in all indicators,” Prof. Shyaka said.

In a telephone interview from London shortly after the release of the index yesterday, Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy to the Great Lakes Region and a board member of the Foundation, said Rwanda is performing exceptionally well in governance, despite the fact there were still some gaps in a few areas.

“Rwanda is one of the five countries that has shown great improvement in Ibrahim index, as a special envoy to  the Great Lakes, that region has the lowest index overall and Rwanda is the top performer in my region,” Robinson said.

“Rwanda has done quite well and I am very pleased with such a wonderful progress in health, education, gender. I have been in Rwanda several times and I have noticed tremendous progress on the ground. I am so impressed.”

In the 2012 Mo Ibrahim index, Rwanda was ranked 23rd out of 52 countries, with a score of 53 per cent overall on governance.

Meanwhile, the Foundation’s 2013 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership did not have a winner.

Source:The New Times