GENERAL NEWS

SADC countries excel in good governance

REPORT

Source: The Southern Times (The newspaper for Southern Africa)

Southern Africa dominates the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) top 10 list of the most best governed countries in Africa, according to the report released this past week.

Windhoek, 12 October 20015 – Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has the most best governed countries in the top 10 in Africa according to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) which was released this week.

The report shows that Southern Africa is the best performing region, with an average score of 58.9, followed by West Africa (52.4), North Africa (51.2) and East Africa (44.3).

Central Africa is the lowest ranking region with an average score of 40.9, and is the only region to have deteriorated since 2011.

Although the report indicates that over the last four years, governance progress in Africa has stalled, and reveals a shifting landscape, SADC countries have recorded high points with Mauritius (1), Botswana (3), South Africa (4) and Namibia (5) making it into the best five governed countries with only Cape Verde (2) preventing SADC from having a clean sweep of the top five. Seychelles is ranked sixth.

Mauritius has a score of 79.9 out of 100, Botswana 74.2 while South Africa and Namibia have 73 and 70.4 respectively.

Lesotho also made it into the top 10 with the overall score of 61.1 while other SADC countries, Zambia (12) and Malawi (17) fall short of the top ten having achieved 59.5 and 56.7 respectively.

Although SADC has the most countries in the top 10, chairperson of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Mo Ibrahim said 21 countries, including five in the top ten, have deteriorated in overall governance performance since 2011.

“Only six countries register an improvement across each of the four categories of the IIAG which are Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

The marginal improvement in overall governance at the continental level is underpinned by positive performances in only two categories, Human Development (+1.2) and Participation and Human Rights (+0.7). Both Sustainable Economic Opportunity (-0.7) and Safety & Rule of Law (-0.3) have deteriorated,” he said.

The good performance of the SADC region comes as no surprise as the bloc’s leaders have also dominated the Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership.

Former Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba was awarded the prize in March this year becoming the third leader from a SADC member state to win the award after former Presidents Festus Mogae of Botswana (2008) and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, the first winner in 2007.

The late Founding President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, also from SADC, was awarded an honorary prize in 2007.

Former Cape Verde President Pedro Pires was also once a recipient of the prestigious award.

And if Pohamba had missed out on the award, chances were still high that a former leader of a SADC country would still bag it as the immediate past President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza was also in the running for the prize as was former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

The US$5m award, sponsored by Sudanese British mobile communications mogul Mohamed Ibrahim’s Foundation, is given each year to an elected leader who governed well, raised living standards and then left office.

The award is paid over 10 years and US$200 000 annually for life thereafter.

To cement the region’s good governance record Pohamba’s successor President Hage Geingob was last month awarded the African Political Leader of the Year Award.

He received the award during the seventh African Leadership Summit and Award themed “Rethinking social responsibility and governance in Africa” in Washington DC, the United States.

The African Leadership Awards are conferred on an annual basis by the African Leadership Magazine, which is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria.

The awards recognise achievements made by selected high profile leaders in Africa and honour their contributions towards their countries’ economic development.

Receiving the award President Geingob said:

“It is not my award, it is an award for leadership.

You do not wear leadership like a necklace, it comes with responsibilities and accountability.”

The Namibian leader said Africa was on the rise.

“It is Africa’s time. We have dropped the ideas of coups d’état, we now believe in democratic elections. African leaders now serve terms.

Former African presidents are now highly respected unlike in the past when they were either exiled, imprisoned or killed,” President Geingob, who is hardly a year into his first term in power said.

Ibrahim also said while Africans overall are certainly healthier and live in more democratic societies than 15 years ago, the 2015 IIAG shows that recent progress in other key areas on the continent has either stalled or reversed, and that some key countries seem to be faltering.

“This is a warning sign for all of us.

Only shared and sustained improvements across all areas of governance will deliver the future that Africans deserve and demand.”

Other key findings of the report show that the African average score for overall governance in 2014 was 50.1, a slight improvement since 2011 (+0.2).

Over the last four years, only half of the top ten governance performers managed to improve their overall governance score, and 21 of the 54 countries have deteriorated.

Also with a 79.9 score for overall governance in 2014, Mauritius stands over 70 points higher than the continent’s weakest governance performer, Somalia, which achieved a score of 8.5.

Ibrahim said the top three countries, Mauritius, Cape Verde and Botswana, all exhibit a decline in overall governance and in at least two of the four components over the last four years, calling into question whether these countries will continue to dominate the top of the rankings in future.

In contrast the bottom three countries in overall governance are Central African Republic (24.9), South Sudan (19.9) and Somalia (8.5).

Two of these, South Sudan (-9.6) and Central African Republic (-8.4), have also registered the most extreme deteriorations, along with Mali (-8.1).

The top ten improvers in overall governance over the last four years represent almost a quarter of the continent’s population.

Five of these countries – Senegal (9), Kenya (14), Morocco (16) Rwanda (11) and Tunisia (8h), already rank in the top 20 of the IIAG, leading to the question of whether they might become the continent’s next powerhouses, according to the report.

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D.R. CONGO

Rebels kill at least 7 civilians in attacks in eastern Congo, civil society groups say

NEWS STORY

Source: The Associated Press

Kinshasa, 12 October 2015 - A representative of civil society groups in eastern Congo says rebels have killed at least seven civilians in two attacks.

Omar Kavota said Monday that rebels from the Allied Defence Forces-NALU launched attacks against Congo's military and during clashes in Mukoko four civilians were killed. He said members of the group also attacked the army in Tenambo, killing three civilians and injuring four. Fighting continued in the villages near the town of Beni in Congo's North Kivu province.

Kavota, the executive director of the rights group, said many families were forced to flee.

The area has been the site of repeated attacks by the rebels, who have origins in neighbouring Uganda.

Eastern Congo is home to myriad armed groups, many vying for control of the region's vast mineral resources.

Ministère de l’Environnement : la Rdc bénéficie de plus de 250 millions de dollars pour préserver ses forêts

INFORMATION

Source: Forum des As (Kinshasa)

Ce financement entre dans le cadre de l’initiative forêt d’Afrique centrale et concerne outre la Rdc, le Cameroun, le Gabon, la République centrafricaine, la Guinée équatoriale, le Congo-Brazzaville.

Kinshasa, 12 octobre 2015 - Dans le cadre de l’Initiative Forêt d’Afrique centrale (CAFI), la République Démocratique du Congo a bénéficié d’un financement de 250.000.000 de dollars américains, sur un total de 1 milliard de dollars US sollicités. Toutes les formalités sont déjà terminées. Il ne reste qu’au ministre des Finances, Henri Yav Mulang, d’adresser une lettre d’intention du gouvernement de la République, au conseil d’administration de CAFI pour ce premier décaissement.

Cette initiative concerne six pays d’Afrique Centrale : le Cameroun, le Gabon, la République Centrafricaine, la Guinée Equatoriale, le Congo-Brazzaville et la RDC. Le pays de Joseph KABILA est le seul à boucler une stratégie nationale en adoptant un plan d’investissement qui identifie les programmes d’activité et des reformes à mettre en œuvre pour réduire les émissions de Gaz à effets de serre.

Ce plan d’investissement a été présenté devant le groupe de bailleurs de fonds constitués principalement de la Norvège, de l’UE, de la France, de la Grande-Bretagne, de l’Allemagne. Ces bailleurs de Fonds sont disposés à mobiliser des ressources pour financer la gestion durable des forêts de l’Afrique Centrale à travers le mécanisme REDD+, Réduction de la déforestation et de la dégradation des forêts.

Pour le Ministre des Finances et Chef de la Délégation de la RDC, Henri YAV Mulang, le gouvernement de la République a placé la lutte contre le changement climatique au cœur de la stratégie nationale de croissance et de réduction de la pauvreté. Le mercredi 29 septembre 2015, Henri Yav a signé la déclaration d’adhésion à l’initiative Forêt d’Afrique Centrale ; CAFI. Cette stratégie vise à stabiliser le couvert forestier à 63,5 pour cent du territoire national à partir de 2030. Elle promeut une politique de développement durable, basée sur un équilibre entre réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et dégradation des forêts et réduction de la pauvreté.

Pour rappel, la RDC représente à elle seule 10 pour cent des forêts tropicales mondiales après l’Amazonie soit 70 pour cent ou mieux 146 millions d’hectares de son territoire national.

Aujourd’hui cette réserve demeure pratiquement intacte et contribue à l’atténuation des changements climatiques. D’où cet enjeu pour la RDC qui doit se positionner par rapport aux différents financements pour la préservation des forêts dans le maintien des équilibres mondiaux de l’écosystème. Cette rencontre intervient un mois avant les Assemblées annuelles du groupe de la Banque Mondiale et du FMI à Lima au Pérou sur le changement climatique.

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RWANDA

Rwanda to open debate on third-term for Kagame

NEWS STORY

Source: AFP via New Vision (Uganda)

Rwanda's parliament was set to open a debate Monday on amending the constitution to let strongman and President Paul Kagame run for a third term in 2017.

12 October 2015 - MPs were due to "examine the relevance of the draft of revision of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda as amended to date," said a parliamentary statement.

Kagame has run Rwanda since his rebel army ended the 1994 genocide.

He won elections in 2003 and 2010 and, under the current law, is due to step aside in 2017 at the end of his second consecutive term.

But earlier this year, more than 60 percent of voters signed a petition calling for constitutional changes to be drafted that would allow Kagame to stand again in 2017, an initiative that has already rubber-stamped by both houses of parliament.

Rwanda: Ugandan, Rwandan Businesses Urged to Venture in Emerging Sectors

NEWS STORY

Source: The New Times (Rwanda)

By Moses Opobo

12 October 2015 - The Ugandan community living and working in Rwanda on Friday met in Kigali to celebrate their country's 53rd Independence Day, with a call on the private sector to take a lead in the emerging sectors such as oil and gas.

The call was made by Uganda's High Commissioner to Rwanda, Richard Kabonero, at the celebrations that drew officials from government and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Kigali.

Uganda gained her independence on October 9, 1962, attaining self-rule from Britain.

Kabonero said various investment opportunities in the oil and gas sector are open to the private sector, including in upstream and downstream oil production, refineries, pipelines, and associated industries, among others.

Uganda-Rwanda relations

On bilateral relations between Uganda and Rwanda, Kabonero saluted Rwanda's unwavering commitment to the protection of vulnerable persons and victims of conflict all over the world, a commitment he said Uganda also shares.

He further commended the government and the people of Rwanda for the visible accelerated pace of development in the country.

"These achievements have positively impacted the whole region," he said.

At the regional level, the envoy thanked partner states in the East African Community for their commitment to implementation of the Northern Corridor Framework, which has in turn accelerated the implementation of infrastructure projects that have increased access to the port of Mombasa, which serves both Rwanda and Uganda.

The initiative has also, among others, helped eliminate barriers to cross-border trade.

Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo described as "very special" the relationship that exists between Rwanda and Uganda: