The latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)
doesn’t make for pretty reading.
Seychelles has been nudged out of the top five of the yearly
Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) which ranks the quality of
governance in African countries, thanks in large part to dismal performances in
key indicators including public sector corruption investigation, police
services, political violence, freedom of expression, freedom of association and
assembly, customs procedures and soundness of banks. At a time when the
country’s press is under fire from the Chief Justice no less, Seychelles’
subpar performance should provide ample food for thought. To be sure, the fact
that the trends show that Seychelles performance in the Participation &
Human Rights subcategory over the past four years is significantly lower than the
African average will doubtless give pause to the authorities and hopefully even
help re-establish certain priorities.
 |
The founder of the IIAG, Mo Ibrahim.
|
“Seychelles’ performance in Participation & Human Rights
is noticeable for being both the lowest category score achieved by the country,
but also showing the most decline over the past four years (-5.2). The
sub-categories of Participation & Human Rights range from scoring 51.8 in Rights,
ranking 24th, to scoring 70.8 in Participation, ranking 11th. Meanwhile in
Gender, Seychelles scores 68.4, ranking 10th”, the report says. But the most
worrying is yet to come: “Seychelles shows it lowest score in Participation
& Human Rights since 2000 in 2014, in large part due to the recent
deterioration over the past four years (-5.2). Both Rights (-6.0) and Gender (-9.8)
contribute to this decline with some dramatic deteriorations in some
indicators: Freedom of Expression (-15.2), Freedom of Association &
Assembly (-25.0) and Gender Equality in the Workplace (-33.3).
It’s not all doom and
gloom – the country boasts modest improvements in the Sustainable Economic
Opportunity (+1.6) and Human Development (+1.5) categories – but the fact that
Seychelles has registered its worst performance in 15 years in the Participation
& Human Rights category should be a source of great concern for civil
society. Indeed, Seychelles seems to be moving in the opposite direction to the
rest of the sub-Saharan Africa. This erosion of some of the most basic human
rights in this day and age can only be harmful to the country’s image abroad (for
example, these “dramatic deteriorations” were reported in South Africa’s Mail
& Guardian). Last year, when Seychelles fell from the fourth to the fifth
spot in the IIAG, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean Paul Adam, attributed
the drop to “data gaps”, arguing that the country was struggling to fulfill the
data requirements of these indices.
Now, that may be the case when it comes to
highly specialized rankings such as the Global Innovation Index which recently saw
Seychelles lose 14 places. But in the case of the IIAG it doesn’t appear that
the paucity of data is to blame for the country’s bad performance. Indeed, it
draws its information from 33 independent institutions including the African
Development Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, World Bank and
Reporters Without Borders. Moreover, contrarily to the global indices that have
the unenviable task of ranking around 150 countries, the IIAG specializes on
governance in Africa. That’s its stock in trade. Finally, when faced with
insufficient data, indices usually mark them as not available rather than giving
them shockingly bad scores. Obviously, it’s always easier to shoot the
messenger than to engage in the sort of introspection required to improve the
country’s performance.
But the former approach can only work for so long before being
found out for what it really is.
Source:Today in Seychelles
