The bad news keeps piling up. Just when we thought we would see no further depressing headlines than those related to the toll that the coronavirus pandemic continues to take on lives and livelihoods alike, in mid-November, Africans woke to reports that the way in which they are governed has deteriorated. And that’s the first time in a decade that there has been a dip in the quality of governance on the continent.

The sad tidings were conveyed by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, whose namesake founder, the Sudanese tycoon, made his billions in the telecommunications sector.

The foundation’s latest Ibrahim Index on African Governance (IIAG) – which is based on 2019 data – shows that the overall decline in governance across the continent has been driven by a deterioration in security and the rule of law in some countries. Security and the rule of law is only one dimension of the IIAG, with the others being participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development. Over the past ten years, these four dimensions have followed diverging parts. While there has been an improvement in economic opportunity, human development and participation and human rights, the security and rule of law dimension has taken a nosedive.

According to the 2020 IIAG, Africa’s top-performing countries in the area of governance are Mauritius (which has been in the top spot for ten consecutive years), Cape Verde, Seychelles, Tunisia and Botswana. The main common threads running through the best-performing countries include the rule of law, justice, inclusion and equality.

Angola and Somalia prop up the rankings, although they are showing some improvement.

According to the foundation, while 60% of Africans live in countries where governance was better in 2019 than it was in 2010, progress has been slowing since 2015. Worryingly, this has been noticeable even in top-ranked Mauritius, as well as in fifth-ranked Botswana and our own Mzansi, which is ranked sixth.

While there has been a deterioration in the top-performing countries, some lower-ranking countries have actually shown noticeable improvement. These are the likes of the Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe, which the Mo Ibrahim Foundation says feature among the five most improved countries over the past decade. Somalia, which has the lowest governance ranking, is ranked seventh in terms of the improvement achieved over this period. Somalia’s showing has been aided by improved infrastructure and increased gender equality, among other factors.

Another takeaway from this year’s IIAG is that, in more than half the countries that were surveyed, citizens believe that governance in their countries is worse now than it was ten years ago.

“The analysis of our findings was that there was overall dissatisfaction among African citizens when it comes to governance delivery in their countries, and the level of satisfaction is worse than ten years ago,” noted Mo Ibrahim Foundation head of research Camilla Rocco.

Some might argue that the deteriorating governance in Africa, especially during 2020, could be attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Mo Ibrahim Foundation doesn’t buy that. In fact, the IIAG shows that a decline in security was already under way long before the pandemic hit. However, Covid-19 has worsened citizens’ participation in elections and has also seen an upsurge in repression and political unrest, as well as a curtailment of participation by civil society organisations.

“The current Covid-19 pandemic is obviously worsening and threatening those that have been making progress, especially in the economic sector,” remarked Mo Ibrahim Foundation executive director Nathalie Delapalme.