Warning signs on Ibrahim index

Jo-Maré Duddy – Although Namibia has moved up one position on the 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) and is now is the country with the 4th best governance overall in Namibia, it is showing diminishing performance in major sectors.

Namibia’s business regulatory environment, restrictions on foreign investment and unemployment cost the country dearly in the business environment sub-category of the latest IIAG.

Last year, Namibia was ranked the 5th best country out of 54 on the continent as far as business environment was concerned. On the 2018 IIAG, it holds the 8th position. The country scored 57.7 out of a possible 100 points for its business environment on the latest IIAG, down from 66.4 in 2017.

Namibia is showing a declining long-term trend for its business environment, having shed 13.9 points from 2008 to 2017, the report indicates.

The country fared particularly poorly as far as two indicators of the sub-category is concerned: the regulatory environment for business and restrictions on foreign investments. Over the past decade, Namibia’s score for both these indicators have dropped by more than 19 points.

The level of market-based competition and the quality of the competitive bidding process are some of the factors taken into account in assessing a country’s business regulatory environment. With a score of 55, Namibia is ranked 20th on this year’s IIAG. For the indicator measuring the absence of restriction on foreign investment, Namibia scored 58, placing it 23rd.

The extent to which the public is satisfied with how the government is handling creating jobs received a score of 29.9 and a rank of 16th. Over the past decade, Namibia has plummeted by 24.9 points on this score.

Namibia is ranked 12th on the latest IIAG index for its public management, down from 6th in 2017. For its budget balance, the country scored 33.8, placing it 19th on the continent.

Sustainable economic opportunity

Public management and business environment are two of the sub-categories taken into account to measure a country’s sustainable economic opportunity. Namibia’s overall score for opportunity is 59.4, placing it 9th in Africa. Last year, the country achieved a score of 64.2, securing it the 7th position.

Other factors coming into play are infrastructure and a country’s rural sector. For the latter, Namibia is ranked 14th with a score of 60.1, virtually the same as last year.

Access to rural land and water for agriculture, one of the indicators for the rural sector, saw Namibia saddled with its second lowest ranking on the 2018 IIAG. Here Namibia had to be satisfied with the 38th position and a score of 40.1, on par with its 2017 performance. Over the past decade, Namibia has lost 9.1 points on this score.

The country also fared poorly regarding rural business climate (20th), participation of rural organisations (30th) and the promotion of gender parity in rural organisations (29th).

Namibia was ranked 6th overall for infrastructure compared to 3rd in 2017. Poor performance in key areas include digital and IT infrastructure (13th) and access to drinking water (15th).

Transparency and accountability

Namibia is one of the countries highlighted in the 2018 IIAG report for falling back on the sub-category for transparency and accountability.

Although Namibia’s overall ranking for transparency and accountability improved from 7th to 4th in the latest index, it has lost 7.7 points on its score over the past decade.

“It is concerning that out of the ten highest scoring countries [overall], four are among the ten most deteriorated countries over the decade: Botswana (ranking 2nd and losing -10.5 points), Namibia (4th and losing -7.7), Cabo Verde (5th and losing -8.9), and South Africa (7th and losing -14.3),” the report states.

The IIAG red-flagged four indicators for Namibia: access to public and legislative information (-12.5 points over the decade), accountability of government and public employees (-0.9), anti-corruption mechanisms (-12.6) and sanctions for abuse of office (-28.6). The latter assesses the extent to which public office holders who abuse their positions are prosecuted or penalised.

Property rights

The 2018 IIAG report also mentions Namibia as one of the countries seeing the biggest deterioration in property rights over the past decade.This indicator captures the extent to which the government protects and enforces private property and contract rights.

Namibia is ranked 6th on the continent for property rights, up from 7th last year. Its score increased from 69.5 to 71.3. Over the past decade, however, Namibia’s score for property rights dropped by 13.3 points.

“Out of the ten countries with the highest scores for property rights, four have seen a deterioration over the decade: Mauritius (-19.2), South Africa (-18.8), Namibia (-13.3) and Botswana (-1.6). Apart from Botswana, all countries are among the ten most deteriorated countries,” the report states.

The IIAG says out of all 102 indicators in the index, property rights shows the strongest correlation with overall governance.

Plusses and minuses

Namibia received its worst ranking – 43rd – for access to sanitation under the health sub-category.

The IIAG also identified warning signs in the following sectors: effective power to govern, capacity of election monitoring agencies, laws on violence against women, lived poverty, environmental policies, education quality, primary school completion and communicable diseases.

Namibia holds the top positions on the 2018 IIAG for: independence of the judiciary, absence of multilateral sanctions, absence of human trafficking, absence of government involvement in armed conflict, absence of domestic armed conflict or risk of conflict, absence of cross-border tensions, absence of internally displaced persons, civil registration and anti-retroviral treatment provisions.