BOTSWANA 1ST IN AFRICA IN ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE RULE OF LAW

This week the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released its annual Index of African Governance, which as in previous years ranked Botswana 3rd in Africa in terms of our overall Good Governance, just below the island nations of Mauritius and Cape Verde. Our country was also ranked first on the continent in the sub-categories of Accountability and the Rule of Law. In sharp contrast to the negative perceptions of some local critics (but consistent with other findings below), at 76 Botswana's overall score in the Ibrahim Index has in fact been stable since the annual survey was first published in 2006, underscoring Government's consistent commitment to human development and public service delivery, as well as adherence to best practice norms of governance and the rule of law. The Ibrahim Index is widely regarded as Africa's leading assessment of governance. Data for compiling the Index is drawn from 86 indicators grouped into 14 sub-categories and four overarching categories, namely Safety and the Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development. Taken together the indicators are designed to measure the effective delivery by Governments of public goods and services to their citizens. In this respect the Index can be seen as a useful external yardstick of this Administration's own adherence it's guiding "5 D" principles of Democracy, Development, Dignity, Discipline and Delivery.In the interest of achieving the greatest degree of objectivity, reliability and accountability, the Ibrahim Index is compiled by independent researchers in partnership with an Advisory Council and a Technical Committee that include experts from a wide range of respected African and International institutions, who source their information from 23 aggregated data providers drawing on over 40,000 raw data points.The latest Index is further reported to have included new indicators in the areas physical and telecommunications infrastructure, gender, health, welfare service provision and economic management. To ensure grass roots input into its assessments the Ibrahim Foundation is also partnering with Afro barometer and Global Integrity South Africa in creating a pan-African databank of citizens' views and voices on a range of governance issues.In its positive assessment of Botswana's continued record of good governance the latest Mo Ibrahim findings are consistent with other respected international governance monitors, e.g. - The 2011 Global Peace Index, which assesses countries' political stability and wellbeing based on such criteria as levels of democracy, transparency, education and material wellbeing, respect for human rights and the rule of law, military expenditure and relations with neighboring states.  With a world ranking of 35 we were placed ahead of France, as well as first in Africa The World Economic Forums 2011 findings for Institutions, which ranked Botswana 32 in the world, between Taiwan and Israel. The 2011 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, which for the 15th year in a row ranked Botswana as the least corrupt country in Africa, as well as among the least corrupt in the world, having moved up five places from last year.  The 2011 RESOURCESTOCKS (RS) World Risk Survey of the global mineral sector, which once more ranked Botswana among the world’s preferred mineral investment destinations. This year we are tied with Sweden for fourth position in its global rankings. Fraser Institute, which this year also placed Botswana in its world-wide top ten, as well as first in Africa, as a location for mineral investment. The continued confidence in Government's prudent management of the economy as reflected in 2011 findings of the IMF, along with Standard and Poor's and Moody's Credit Agencies.