“Every time the situation deteriorates in terms of security and the rule of law, governance declines”
Even if the level of global governance is better in 2021 than in 2012, progress has stagnated for three years, which worries Nathalie Delapalme, executive director of the Mo Ibrahim foundation.
RFI: The democratic decline began before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. How do you explain it ?
Nathalie Delapalme : This stagnation is essentially driven, I would even say solely driven, by an accelerated deterioration in results, performance in terms of safety and the rule of law. What is emphasized is that each time the situation deteriorates in terms of security and the rule of law, governance also declines. You have 32 countries in which the situation deteriorated between 2012 and 2021.
In your ranking, Mauritius comes first for the fourth consecutive year, but you also underline a regression, why?
When you look at Mauritius closely, you perceive that in all three dimensions – security/rule of law, participation/inclusion, foundation of economic opportunities – the situation is deteriorating more and more accelerated in the second part of the period 2012-2021. With regard to the human development dimension, the deterioration is there too. If you don’t have balanced governance in these four dimensions, overall governance performance drops.
What lessons should be drawn from your index?
The index is not intended to provide advice on security and the rule of law. It is simply a consolidated dashboard that takes into consideration all the different dimensions of governance. If we do not raise the bar fast enough, particularly on security issues, Africa will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the achievement of the AU Agenda 2063. .