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THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE Global Village
By Janice Roberts Johannesburg — The ma-
Mandela’s wife challenges African leaders
jority of Africans are not ben- efiting from the continent’s economic recovery, women and child rights activist and wife of Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, said. She was speak- ing at the annual summit of the National Business Initia- tive (NBI) in Johannesburg.
“In Africa, the economic
recovery from the global re- cession has been faster as 80 percent of countries had posi- tive growth in 2009. However, income gaps are growing and the vast majority of people are not benefiting and we must remember that we can’t move ahead while millions are left behind.”
Machel said it was a pity
that “we don’t watch indica- tors of life like we watch eco- nomic indicators.”
One in 16 African women
died during pregnancy or birth while HIV/Aids was the number one cause of death of women of child bearing age. Furthermore, Machel said an enormous number of African women were illiterate.
“Women in Africa are pre-
vented from accessing land and capital that they need and financial institutions don’t have the systems in place to cater for women’s entrepre- neurship as unreasonable collateral is required,” she said, adding that more African women should be included in decision-making processes of the continent’s financial insti- tutions.
“They should work with
these financial institutions to remove obstacles to their par- ticipation as entrepreneurs,” she said.
According to Machel, the
youth of Africa had become “disengaged.”
As there was insufficient
employment for even educat- ed young people, the youth of the continent had become marginalised. If groups such as women and youth did not participate in the decision- making process, their inter- ests could not be taken into account, Machel said.
“Here in South Africa when
you look at the top decision makers like board members and CEOs, where are the women?”
Africa’s best capital was its
people and the potential of ex- pertise they represented.
“Some young economies
have high growth rates but they are leaving their people behind,” she said.
While building schools
and clinics was all important, human capital was just as im- portant, Machel noted, adding, “As business leaders, the best investment you can make is in the human capacity of Africa.”
Machel said that although
it might take twenty years to see results, business and so- ciety would benefit.
“Take the example of China
as 25 years ago everyone laughed at that country, but now the Chinese are not only here in Africa but elsewhere,” she commented.
China had invested in its
youth, training them both in the country and around the world.
“Now Africa must invest in
its youth. The resources we have can make us a prosper- ous continent but not through minerals. We need people to transfer these minerals into wealth and therefore create well-being,” she said.
Another problem facing
the continent was that while Africa traded with other con- tinents, African countries did not trade among themselves.
“You as big business,
you make deals with the US, Europe and Asia, but very few deals are made with African countries. You can do more and you must think strategi- cally,” Machel said.
South Africa being the only
African member of the G20 and the only representative in the BRIC movement, was both the face and voice of the conti- nent.
“You as business people
must engage governments and help governments to make Africa function as a continent. Plan clearly how you are going to make Africa a continent of prosperity,” also noting thatsystems imported from around the world by African businesses were “collapsing.”
“Africa must learn and do things its own way,” she said.
index as “a tool to hold govern- ments to account and frame the debate about how we are governed.”
Citing what it saw as the
most interesting trends seen in this year’s survey, the foundation said more than 40 countries had seen “some form of improvement” in the categories of sustainable eco- nomic opportunity and human development.
“Generally, African citizens Graca Machel Good
governance for some
Cape Town — Governance
standards have improved sig- nificantly in Angola, Liberia and Togo over the past four years, but have declined in Er- itrea and Madagascar, accord- ing to a leading survey assess- ing the quality of governance across Africa.
This year’s edition of the
Ibrahim Index of African Gov- ernance, released in Johan- nesburg on Monday, shows that Mauritius remains Afri- ca’s best-governed country, with a score of 82 out of a pos- sible 100 on the index. Soma- lia is still the worst-governed nation, with a score of 8.
Liberia’s score showed the
biggest increase, from 32 in 2004/05 to 44 in 2008/09, the latest years for which data are available. Angola’s score also rose steadily over the four years, from 31 to 39, while Togo’s improved from 36 to 43.
All three countries never-
theless remained in the bottom half of the continent’s rank- ings. Of 53 nations surveyed, Liberia was in 36th place, just ahead of Niger and Mauritania and immediately behind Cam- eroon and Ethiopia. Togo was in 39th and Angola in 43rd place.
Eritrea’s score on the index
dropped from 40 to 33 over the four years, and it was ranked in 49th place, only four places above bottom-ranked Somalia, where the federal government does not even control the whole of the capital, Mogadi- shu.
Madagascar, where there
was an unconstitutional sei- zure of power 18 months ago, saw its score on the index drop from 56 to 48, but it remained higher on the rankings, as the 29th best-governed coun- try in Africa. Thecontinent’s best-governed countries after Mauritius are the Seychelles, Botswana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Tuni- sia, Lesotho and Egypt.
Somalia is followed as the
worst-governed country in Africa by Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Equato- rial Guinea, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire.
The survey indicates that
the continent’s best-governed region is Southern Africa, with an average score on the index of 57, followed by North Africa (54), West Africa (50), East Africa (45) and Central Africa (38).
The Ibrahim index is pro-
duced by the Mo Ibrahim Foun- dation, which was founded by the Sudanese cellphone en- trepreneur of the same name. The foundation describes the
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are healthier and have more access to economic opportu- nities than was the case five years ago. However, the cat- egory that gender sits within, participation and human rights, makes for less encour- aging reading. Thirty of Africa’s 53 states have declined in par- ticipation and human rights performance over the past five years, notwithstanding some improvements around gender issues.
“Overall, the impressive
sustained economic progress and human development on the continent stand in con- trast to deterioration in na- tional performance in secu- rity, rule of law, participation and rights.”
The index measures the
delivery of public goods and services by government and non-state entities, using four main categories - including 88 criteria - by which to judge the performance of nations: safety and the rule of law, participa- tion by citizens and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human devel- opment.
It has laid emphasis in
recent years on boosting the role of African scholars in pro- ducing the index, and this year cites the involvement of insti- tutions from Benin, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.
Introducing this year’s
index, Mo Ibrahim said the index had strengthened the assessment of governments’ commitment to gender equal- ity by adding indicators as- sessing women’s political and economic rights and examin- ing legislation combating vio- lence against women.
But the survey acknowl-
edged important shortcom- ings in the compilation of the index: “Many crucial indica- tors of governance, such as poverty and health statistics, could not be included as the data are not sufficiently com- prehensive. The future provi- sion of robust data, including health and poverty statistics, from African sources is a core priority.”
Scores achieved in selected countries:
Botswana - 74 South Africa - 70 Namibia - 67 Ghana - 64 Lesotho – 60 Egypt – 59 Senegal – 57 Tanzania – 54 Malawi and Mozambique – 52 Uganda and Libya – 51 Kenya – 50 Rwanda and Madagascar – 48 Ethiopia and Liberia – 44 Nigeria - 43 Cote d’Ivoire – 38 Guinea and Equatorial Guinea – 36 Eritrea and Sudan - 33 Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo – 32
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