31 Oct 2024
2024 Ibrahim Index Reveals Namibia's Mixed Governance Performance with Slowed Decline Over Five Years
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has released the 2024 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, ranking Namibia sixth in Africa with an overall governance score of 63.9 out of 100.
The report, published last week, highlights a 3.3-point decline in Namibia’s governance score over the past decade, although the rate of decline slowed to 0.3 points over the last five years.
The Ibrahim Index, which evaluates governance performance across Africa, analyzes data from 54 countries over the decade from 2014 to 2023. According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the data is sourced from independent or Foundation-commissioned sources and covers 322 variables organized into 96 indicators across 16 subcategories. These subcategories fall under four main categories: Security and Rule of Law; Participation, Rights and Inclusion; Foundations for Economic Opportunity; and Human Development.
In the category of Security and Rule of Law, Namibia scored 68.5, ranking fourth on the continent with a trend of decelerating deterioration. Within this category, Namibia’s scores included 79.3 in security and safety, 71.8 in rule of law and justice, 64.5 in accountability and transparency, and 58.5 in anti-corruption.
Namibia's Foundations for Economic Opportunity score was 58.2, placing it 14th, while the country ranked sixth in Participation, Rights and Inclusion, with a score of 68.9.
Human Development scored 59.8, ranking Namibia 13th. This category showed no change in 2023 compared to 2014 but has shown improvement since 2019. Within this category, health, education, social protection and welfare, and sustainable environment scored 65.1, 61.7, 49.1, and 63.2, respectively.
"Namibia scores below the continental average for six of the 96 index indicators. Namibia improved in 42 of the 96 indicators between 2014 and 2023 and declined in 54,” the Foundation noted.
The country’s highest-scoring indicators include absence of armed conflict and civil registration, each scoring 100, as well as absence of forced migration at 99.8, human resources in education at 95.7, absence of violence against civilians at 93.2, impartiality of the judicial system at 89.3, civil society space at 89.2, rights and civil liberties for women at 86.8, air quality at 85.5, and freedom of expression and belief at 84.6.
Conversely, Namibia’s lowest-scoring indicators included public perception of economic opportunities, shipping and postal networks, ease of obtaining an identity document, socioeconomic inequality mitigation, public perception of social protection and lived poverty, equality in education, access to banking services, transport networks, and anti-corruption mechanisms.