Clamp down on citizens’ voice by African governments continues unabated – Africa Integrity Indicators reveal

The 10th round findings of Africa Integrity Indicators (AII), a research project of the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and Global Integrity, raised alarm on the dangerous trend over the decade as most African governments continue to restrict the freedoms of information and expression, with the COVID-19 pandemic affording some governments an additional impetus to further impinge on these freedoms.  

For 10 years, AII has used scientific methods to yearly assess transparency, accountability and social development in all 54 African countries. Using a pre-defined research tool, in-country researchers score various governance indicators, which are then subsequently peer-reviewed, and preliminary results released in April for experts, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to review, validate or send through feedback. Feedback received is then incorporated before the final results are published in July each year.  

This year’s results, covering September 2020–September 2021, revealed that there was a slight increase in the indicator measuring press freedom from the 9th round, but the minimal gains of this indicator were largely offset by a sharp decrease in the indicator measuring government censorship, especially of online content. In general, both indicators measuring press freedom and government censorship have continually declined over the past ten years. 

At a webinar to unveil the 10th round findings of AII and discuss its implications on governance in Africa, discussants Sarah Wesonga of Article 19-East Africa and Martha Munthali of the African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption highlighted the disconnection between written laws and their implementation in practice. This disconnection was clearly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic as Sarah Wesonga noted that provisions in seemingly progressive laws enshrining citizens’ right to freedom of expression were deployed with the stated aim to control the health emergency. For instance, a number of countries such as Ethiopia and Uganda carried out Internet shutdowns during the pandemic, mainly for political motives.  

The 10th round findings captured a full year of the pandemic, declared in March 2020 by the World Health Organization, and the indicator related to health campaigns and responses to epidemics rebounded from the 9th round, which captured the earlier months of the pandemic. These findings on health and the freedom of expression reveal the interconnectedness of different aspects of governance. A further interconnection was highlighted by Martha Munthali who noted that the inability of citizens to voice concerns prevents governments from taking decisive action to address the offenses of high-ranking civil servants and politicians, hampering the war against corruption.  

A key factor for good governance in Africa is the institutionalisation of the rule of law, which Dr Justice Mavedzenge of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit at the University of Cape Town described as an evolution from law to judgement to justice in practice. He noted that there is often scrutiny of the upper echelons of the justice system and a corresponding disregard for the workings of lower courts. These lower courts, however, are closer to the people and serve as means through which they achieve redress and justice, but they can also be weaponised to punish perceived critics or dissenters of incumbent governments. Dr Mavedzenge thus emphasised the independence of the judiciary as paramount, including its decisional independence and financial autonomy, to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the citizenry.  

It is not all gloom for the continent. The indicators measuring women representation in cabinets and legislatures increased from the 9th round, though the indicator for representation in the judiciary remained the same. As women representation has gradually become a norm in political appointments, the last decade has seen the rise of these indicators. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement as less than half of the continent meets the 33% threshold of representation in the three arms of government.  

 The top five performing countries are South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Tunisia and Namibia. South Africa and Mauritius have always been top performers, while Seychelles has continually improved its performance and has entrenched itself at top. Tunisia maintained its spot despite the closure of the headquarters of its anti-corruption body by the executive branch of government. Cabo Verde dropped out of the top five due to the executive branch’s interference in its judicial branch. Mali showed the most improvement in the 10th round despite a coup d’état occurring during the research period. The period, however, did not cover the postponement of elections, and research during the 11th round will reveal the impact on its overall score. At the bottom of the ranking, consistently for over the decade, have been Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia. 

All the data is publicly available on the project’s website. Dr Rose Oronje, AFIDEP’s Director of Public Policy and Knowledge Translation and Head of Kenya Office, reiterated that the data must serve an intentional purpose to stimulate action towards improving the lives of the people of Africa.