2008 IBRAHIM INDEX OF AFRICAN GOVERNANCE
This 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance measures the degree to which each of these political goods is provided within the forty-eight African countries south of the Sahara. By comprehensively measuring the performance of government in this manner, that is, by measuring governance, the Index is able to offer a report card on the accomplishments of each government for the years being investigated -- 2000 and 2002 (for baseline indications) and 2005 and 2006 (the last years with reasonably complete available data for nearly all sub-Saharan African nation-states).
The Index is updated annually. Additionally, the sources of information for the indicators used in our Index are also updated constantly, both through our own efforts and through the efforts of other projects. Thus, in each year, we employ the best available data. Unlike many other projects, we also update the Index backward in each year, using all of this new information so that comparisons over time can be made. This allows the Index to be used to demonstrate how each of the forty-eight countries has shown progress or has slipped backward.
In 2008, Mauritius ranked first for the second year, followed by the Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana and South Africa. The countries that ranked the lowest in 2008 were Angola in the 44th spot, followed by Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with Somalia last. To see the full 2008 Index Rankings (which are based on 2006 data), click here.
To read the opening essays from the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, please click on the appropriate link.
The Meaning of Governance: Ranking Africa
The 2008 Results: Index of African Governance
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INDEX REPORT
To download the entire 2008 Index of African Governance in PDF format, click here
CITATION
Please cite the Index as Rotberg, Robert I. and Rachel M. Gisselquist, Strengthening African Governance: Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Results and Rankings (Cambridge, MA, 2008).
ANALYSIS TOOLS
The data set used in the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance can be used to analyze a wide variety of issues. The authors hope that other analysts and scholars will put it to good use, and are very interested to hear about how you have used the data and what you have found. Selected papers will be posted to our website.
The data currently can be accessed for analysis in several formats:
Index Data Set in Excel
The 2008 Index data set can be downloaded in two ways:
In Excel from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)'s Data Collection at
http://www.nber.org/data/iag.html
And, through the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS)'s Dataverse Network Project:
http://dvn.iq.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/governance
AfricaMap
AfricaMap is a platform for displaying and analyzing spatial data on Africa. It is based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform, and was developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis. To access the AfricaMap display for the Index, select "2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance" under the "Map Layers" tab, check the box, and choose "Zoom To." (Currently, only overall Index results are available in AfricaMap.) For more complex displays and analysis, follow the instructions under the "About" tab.
Click here to visit the AfricaMap for the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
