Rwanda: Country Shows Major Improvements in Governance - World Bank Report

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The New Times (Kigali)

30 June 2008
Posted to the web 30 June 2008

James Karuhanga
Kigali

A new report released by the World Bank indicates that Rwanda has registered significant improvement in governance.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) 2008 released Tuesday tallies individual governance indicators for 212 countries over the period 1996-2007.

The results are based on the six dimensions of governance: political stability and absence of violence, control of corruption, government effectiveness, rule of law, voice and accountability and regulatory quality.

A country data report displaying Rwanda's performance for the years between 1996 and 2007 indicates that it has made major strides in mainly ensuring political stability and stifling violence and terrorism.

According to the institution's definition, this dispels the likelihood that the government will be destabilized by unconstitutional means.

Three other dimensions - control of corruption, government effectiveness and rule of law also feature among the country's leading governance improvements.

The report however falls short in recognizing recent efforts towards improving on voice and accountability, and regulatory quality.

According to the World Bank's statement, the updated version of the WGI compiled by its researchers defines governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised.

It shows many developing countries' governments making important gains in control of corruption, and some of them even matching rich country performance in overall governance measures.

"Some countries are making rapid progress in governance, including in Africa, showing that a measure of 'Afro-optimism' is called for," the statement quotes Daniel Kaufmann, co-author of the report and Director of Governance at the World Bank Institute, an internal think-tank.

"Progress reflects reforms in those countries where political leaders, policymakers, civil society and the private sector view good governance and corruption control as crucial for sustained and shared growth," he said.

It is noted that the seventh update of the WGI is an effort by the researchers to build and update the most comprehensive cross-country set of governance indicators currently available..

The report, however useful, is not far-reaching and its authors acknowledge the challenge. "The WGI and other efforts to measure are useful in prompting public discussion of governance challenges and successes," said Aart Kraay, co-author of the WGI and a leading economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank.

Relevant Links Central Africa International Organizations and Africa Rwanda

"But at the same time, discussions of governance based on empirical measures need to be realistic about the limits of existing data. In this respect it is important that users take seriously the margins of error reported in the WGI, which reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data."

Also underscored is that better governance helps fight poverty and improves living standards, 'and not the other way around.' The Bank acknowledges that good governance has also been found to significantly enhance the effectiveness of development assistance in general and of World Bank-funded projects in particular.

However, the statement pointed out that the WGI do not reflect the official views of the World Bank and are not used by the World Bank Group to allocate resources.

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