Africans gave their governments poor marks in a landmark scorecard on the way officials run 28 of the continent’s nations, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.
Corruption, poor tax systems and dilapidated public services were the main complaints of about 50 000 African families and 2 000 experts polled in the first-ever UN-sponsored evaluation of their governments, said Kingsley Amoako, head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, which conducted the study.
Africans also criticised their governments for weak Parliaments, failing to reform their courts, inadequate efforts to fight HIV/Aids, failing to make technology more accessible as well as not holding civil servants accountable, Amoako told delegates at the African Development Forum.
A five-day gathering opened on Monday in the Ethiopian capital to discuss and examine ways of improving governance in Africa.
”In Africa, the challenge is not just to prevent states from failing, but to encourage states to succeed,” Amoako told more the meeting of than 1 000 politicians, businesspeople and experts.
”These findings underpin the need for a capable, democratic state with strong institutions promoting the public interests.”
One of the key questions of the governance report was: ”Do you trust your government?”
Three-quarters of respondents in Ghana said yes, while less than a quarter of Nigerians were positive, said another UN official who read the report, scheduled for release on Tuesday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the gathering that good governance is key to development of the world’s poorest continent.
African countries are also saddled with $305-billion in debts, and their products account for barely 2% of world trade. Investment in the continent has shrunk to $11-billion a year.
HIV complicates efforts to spur economic growth and development in Africa. More than 26-million Africans are infected with HIV and an estimated 15-million have died from Aids.
In the past 50 years, 186 coups and 26 major wars have killed more than seven million people and cost Africa $250-billion, according to UN figures. Half a dozen African nations are still troubled by serious conflicts.
”Without good governance and the full respect of the democratic rights of the citizens and all sectors of the society, it would be impossible to put in place conditions for durable peace and stability,” Meles said. ”Obviously, without durable peace and stability, there can be no development to speak of.”
”There is no better evidence of this than the political history of our continent,” Meles said. — Sapa-AP