2012 was an incredible year for Africa. It saw the entry of some new leaders, most notably a transition of leadership to Africa's second female president (by no means a drama-free one). It was also sad for those that lost sitting presidents, John Atta Mills of Ghana, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi.

The Africa Leadership Index is a tool of governance-tracking of African leaders developed by Nation Media Group's Africa Project.

It is an aggregate on all major indexes that cover Africa, plus our own (see note on methodology) led by LYNETTE MUKAMI.

Now that all the main reports for 2012 have come out, we bring you our ranking of African leaders by governance last year, beginning with the best and running down to the worst.

Note On Methodology

Leaders' grades were derived from how they placed in five respected international indices of governance, plus the Nation Media Group (NMG) Political Index. Their scores in these indices were weighted, then combined to produce a score on 100. The best governors placed closest to 100, and the worst closest to 0. The scorecard heavily rewards consistency. If an Africa leader scores very highly in one or two areas, but poorly in the rest, he/she will end up with a dismal overall grade. A consistent score across the board, on the other hand, will place him/her highly in the overall standings. The indices were weighted as follows:

Mo Ibrahim Index – 10%
Democracy Index – 10%
Press Freedom Index – 10%
Corruption Index – 15%
Human Development Index – 20%
NMG Political Index – 35%

Leaders were assigned letter grades based on their 0-100 score, derived from the six indices. The best of the group received "A", good performers got "B", passable leaders got "C." Leaders who performed below standard received "D" and "F."

Also, two special categories were added to these basic grades: the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the Morgue. Leaders in this range represent the bottom of the barrel.

Mo Ibrahim Index

The Ibrahim Index is the most comprehensive collection of qualitative and quantitative data that assesses governance in Africa. It measures the delivery of public goods and services to citizens and uses indicators across four main categories: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development.

Countries are scored between 0 and 100, where 100 is the best. The 'rank' refers to their position in relation to other African countries; the best governed country takes 1st place, the worst 52nd.
(http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/en)

Democracy Index

The Democracy Index (2011) is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit and seeks to examine the state of democracy in countries. It focuses on five general categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

Full democracies—scores of 8-10
Flawed democracies—scores of 6 to 7.9
Hybrid regimes—scores of 4 to 5.9
Authoritarian regimes—scores below 4

The rank refers to their position in relation to other countries worldwide, the most democratic take 1st place, and the least take 167th.
(http://www.eiu.com/public/)

Press Freedom Index

The Freedom of the Press Index is produced annually by Freedom House advocacy group. The countries are given a total score from 0 (best) to 100 (worst) on the basis of a set of 23 methodology questions divided into three subcategories. Assigning numerical points allows for comparative analysis among the countries surveyed and facilitates an examination of trends over time. The degree to which each country permits the free flow of news and information determines the classification of its media as "Free," "Partly Free," or "Not Free." Countries scoring 0 to 30 are regarded as having "Free" media; 31 to 60, "Partly Free" media; and 61 to 100, "Not Free" media.
(http://freedomhouse.org)

Corruption Index

Transparency International’s "Corruption Perceptions Index" ranks countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector. It draws on different assessments and business opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions, and compiles the index to include questions relating to bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and questions that probe the strength and effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts.

The scale is from 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). The rank refers to their position in relation to other countries worldwide, the most ‘clean’ takes 1st place, the least takes 174th.
(http://www.transparency.org/)

Human Development Index

The United Nation’s primary method of measuring development, the Human Development Index is a comparative measure of health, education and income that was introduced in the first Human Development Report in 1990 as an alternative to purely economic assessments of national progress, such as GDP growth. It soon became the most widely accepted and cited measure of its kind, and has been adapted for national use by many countries. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, developing, or under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Health is measured by life expectancy at birth; education or “knowledge” by a combination of the adult literacy rate and school enrolment rates (for primary through university years); and income or standard of living by purchasing-power-adjusted per capita Gross National Income (GNI); GNI includes remittances and foreign assistance income, for example, providing a more accurate economic picture of many developing countries.

High Human Development = 0.7 and above
Medium Human Development = 0.450 to 0.699
Low Human Development = 0 to 0.449

The rank refers to their position in relation to other countries worldwide, the most developed will rank 1st place, the least developed will rank 186th.
(http://hdr.undp.org/)

NMG Political Index

The NMG Political Index is an evaluation of a leader’s performance, based on tracking by Nation Media Group journalists. It takes into account how a leader took power; whether they have extended or broken term limits; it measures investment in infrastructure; food security; democratic space; creative public policy and effective of execution; globalisation initiatives; and the extent to which a leader invest in national building. Because it is so ambitious, it has the highest weighting.

10-9 = outstanding
8-7 = good
6-5-4 = average
3-2 = poor
1-0 = truly appalling

Somalia and South Sudan got an 'Incomplete' grade as they were missing values for several indices that made it difficult to grade.

Download the full report of the 2012 Africa Leadership Scorecard

Email: [email protected]