SWAZILAND IMPROVES ON GOVERNANCE ISSUES

MBABANE – Swaziland has improved by just 1.4 per cent on the 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) which was released this week.

This means the country has moved from 50.1 per cent (in year 2012) to 51.5 per cent (in year 2013), and, therefore, ranks 24th over the 52 African countries in the index.

At 51.5 per cent, the kingdom is at par with the overall ranking of all the African states.
Mauritius was the best performer among African countries overall scoring 1st over 52 countries and 81.7 per cent. The worst was Somalia at 52nd over 52 countries and only 8.6 per cent. The IIAG provides an annual assessment of the quality of governance in African countries.

It assesses progress under four main conceptual categories: Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.

These four pillars are populated with data that cover governance elements ranging from infrastructure to freedom of expression and sanitation to property rights. The IIAG allows users to benchmark governance performance across a number of dimensions at the national, regional and continental levels.

In the Rule of Law category Swaziland scored 58.9 per cent and landed position 13 over the 52 African countries. The indicators for this included judicial process, independence, transfers of power and property rights. Swaziland performed better than Africa’s average which is 47.1 per cent.
The country’s performance in this category marked an improvement because it scored 54.9 per cent in 2012.  When it comes to Accountability, there was also an improvement moving from 39.5 per cent in 2012 to 47.2 per cent in 2013.

Indicators for this included accountability of public officials, corruption in government, and diversion of public funds, and prosecution of abuse of office.  National security score was the highest for the country at 90 per cent for the past two years, while Africa’s average stood around 77.1 per cent. Indicators were cross border tensions, political refugees and domestic armed conflict.

In the Sustainable Economic Opportunity category Swaziland ranked 16th over 52 African countries and scored 51.6. Infrastructure improvements saw the country land at position 11 over 52 countries. The indicators were electricity supply, road network, rail network, air transport, access to water and digital connectivity. Improvements in the rural sector stood at 55.5 per cent after increasing from 49 per cent in 2012.
Indicators included agricultural input and produce markets and dialogue between government and rural organisations.

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