Good progress in governance for EA states

Good progress in governance for EA states

By The Citizen Reporter, Arusha

 

Although East Africa is yet to be a good governance player in Africa and globally, it has made meaningful strides over the last decade to improve its scorecard.

 

Several experts made these remarks during a two-day conference on democratic transition organised by the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

 

They said the progress so far made, although uneven among EAC members, should be consolidated as the bloc surges towards a political federation.

 

The focus should be on promotion of best practices at the grassroots level where good governance institutions are currently given scant attention, argued Dr Benson Bana of the UDSM.

 

The participants drawn from all the five EAC member states said the region should take governance seriously and not as a question of just winning the likes of the Mo Ibrahim Award and top rankings in Harvard University's Index of African Governance (IAG).

 

"Governance is improving in the five East African countries, but assessments of governance in Africa should strive to reflect the realities on the ground through closer collaboration with local experts in collection and authentication of data," Prof Samuel Mushi noted.

 

He was presenting the thematic paper of the 12th Conference on Democratic Transition in East Africa.

 

The conference, whose theme was Governance and Development at the Grassroots in the East African Region, was organized by the UDSM Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania (REDET).

 

Data in Prof Mushi's presentation obtained from IAG show that from 2000 -2007 Tanzania was the champion of good governance in East Africa. It scored an average of 59.2 points out of a maximum of 100.

 

Second in ranking was Kenya with 58.6 points, followed by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi with 57.8, 54.2 and 43 points respectively.

 

The average score points for the five countries improved by nearly nine points from 48.7 in 2000 to 57.2 two years ago. While worst performer Burundi scored 35.7 and 50 points respectively during the two years, good governance leader Tanzania scored 53.6 and 61.5 points respectively.

 

Harvard's IAG 2009 report ranks Tanzania 20th in its assessment of governance in Africa's 53 states with Rwanda coming second in the region but 26th in Africa. The third EAC good governance champion is Kenya that is ranked 27th in Africa while Uganda is 28th and Burundi 39th.

 

The rankings were based on five parameters- safety and security; rule of law, transparency and corruption; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity as well as human development.

 

"Considering the EA regional context, Rwanda leads in two of the five categories of governance assessment, namely safety and security and in participation and human rights," Prof Mushi told the conference, continuing:.

 

"Kenya is a regional leader in two categories, namely in sustainable economic opportunity and human development categories."

 

He said despite noises being made locally that the government is not doing enough to tame corruption, Tanzania leads in the region in enforcing anti-corruption measures.

 

It is also number one when it comes to enforcement of the rule of law and transparency in public activities as well as government business.

 

"Tanzania is the overall leader in the EAC because of holding the second position for the remaining four categories. Uganda stays at the middle, maintaining the third position in four of the categories and a second position in one, namely rule of law, transparency and corruption."

 

The bad boy of good governance in the EAC, Burundi, shows major weaknesses in all the five categories after being ranked fifth in three categories and fourth in two.