Several countries lagging behind in governance - UNECA

Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya and Swaziland are lagging in good governance, according to a landmark United Nations survey of 28 nations on the continent released on Tuesday.

The four countries fell short in areas like corruption, political representation, economic management and respect of human rights, says the report published by the African Development Forum. In the first ever evaluation of its kind, the 63-page UN report also showed that few Africans living in the 28 countries trust the police or think public services are efficient.

"Police and prison services violate the rights of citizens with impunity in several countries," the report by the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, said. "These agencies, especially the police, engage in torture, extra-judicial killings and ill treatment of suspects awaiting trial."

It also stated that in Kenya, Ethiopia, Chad, Zimbabwe and Malawi, "there are doubts about the commitment of government agencies to respect and implement the rule of law".

The pioneering study, Striving for Good Governance, reveals what Africans think about their own governments and their management of the country. Countries who agreed to the survey included Benin, Botswana, Egypt, Gabon, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

The Economic Commission for Africa chose the 28 countries out of Africa’s 53 nations because the governments agreed to be surveyed. The results also showed that a third of Africans quizzed say their parliaments are weak and fail to keep the incumbent political parties in check.

In Cameroon, almost half of those questioned said public services were very poor, while starting a business in Mozambique can take a staggering 153 days because of red tape. Cameroon, Angola, Kenya and Nigeria are ranked as the most corrupt on the continent. Overall the African judiciary is seen as poor and in some countries like Burkina Faso, it can take up to three or four years before a case is ever heard at court.

Some 50,000 households were quizzed for the study, while 2,000 experts ranging from academics to members of civil society were questioned. The report was launched as a five-day gathering opened Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to discuss and examine ways of improving governance in Africa.

The landmark survey, which took over a year to compile, addressed seven key areas that included political representation, corruption, human rights and economic management. The ECA hope to expand the survey to include 12 further countries.

Kingsley Amoako, head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, called for an action plan to address governance weaknesses on the continent. "These findings underpin the need for a capable democratic state with strong institutions promoting the public interest," he said. "An action plan is called for to address the capacity deficits that currently so impede progress in Africa."