The World Bank’s Africa Development Indicators does not make news, partly because you really have to look for it on the Bank’s site.

I spent a lot of time thinking through the 2010 Indicators when it came out early this year. Soon, it started doing  a belly dance right before my years, because it told a very exciting, though unintended, exotic story.

For example, I concluded that if  you want to marry an educated African woman, then go wife-hunting in the Seychelles.

Related Links

• Why Africa needs 'cheetahs,' not 'hippos'-Source: CNN

If you want to hire one to work for you, go to Burundi. And if you want to find a woman MP easily, then head to Rwanda. If you want to see a railway line, go to South Africa – avoid Uganda. Your child has the best chance of enrolling for primary school in Sao Tome and Principe. And if you want to have sex where you can find contraceptives to avoid pregnancy, then go to Mauritius.

When I posted it on my blog, it generated a very lively discussion. I decided that I would develop a personal index that would try to rate African leaders on a range of issues that are usually not used in most international surveys.

In addition, I would listen to and read on a lot of African news, and also form a rating on the basis of my very subjective and unscientific conclusions. Because I don’t want people to take this seriously, I decided I would call it the “ The Wacky Obbo Index of African Leaders”.

 From the World Bank’s Africa Development Indicators for 2010, I decided to do a winners and losers table, and it looked very interesting…

POPULATION
•Winner- Nigeria is the largest with 151.3m
•Loser- Seychelles smallest with 0.1m

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP)
•Winner- South Africa has largest real GDP of $183bn. 
•Loser - Guinea Bissau smallest with GPD of $202m 

WOMEN IN WORK FORCE
•Winner - Burundi has most women in work force, 90.2 per cent
•Loser- Sudan has lowest, 32.8 per cent

LIFE EXPECTANCY
•Winner- Seychelles has highest in Sub-Sahara Africa; 73 years 
•Loser- Mozambique has lowest, 42 years

ADULT LITERACY 
•Winner- Zimbabwe, surprise, surprise, has highest at 91.2 per cent
•Loser- Mali and Burkina Faso have lowest, 28.7 per cent

MOST EDUCATED WOMEN
•Winner- In Seychelles, 92 per cent of women literate
•Losers- Niger at 15 per cent, and Chad at 13 per cent have lowest

LONGEST RAIL LINES
•Winner- South Africa, 24,487km. 
•Loser- Uganda, 259km

STARTING ABUSINESS (in 2010)
•Winner- Rwanda has the least days for starting a business – 3.
•Loser- Guinea Bissau - starting a business requires at least 213 days!

URBANISATION 
•Winner- Djibouti has most urbanised population in Africa, 84.6 per cent

•Loser- Burundi least urbanized, 10.4 per cent

PRIMARY SCHOOL ENROLMENT
•Winner- Sao Tome and Principe has highest, 97.1 per cent
•Loser- Liberia lowest at 30.9 per cent

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT
•Winner- Rwanda has highest number of women as share of total seats in Parliament, 56.3 per cent (highest in world too)
•Loser- Sao Tome and Principe has lowest at 1.8 per cent 

CONTRACEPTIVE USE 
•Winner- Mauritius has highest use at 75.8 per cent
•Loser- Chad is lowest at just 2.8 per cent

ACCESS TO SAFE SOURCE OF WATER 
•Winner- In Mauritius, 100 per cent of population has access to safe sources of water
•Loser- Somalia, only 29 per cent

So it is really a mixed bag. Mauritius has world class access to water, contraceptives, but is beaten in adult case by Zimbabwe, which is otherwise thought of as a basket case. And the differences between it and Somalia, are wider than the differences between several Asian countries and Somalia.

If you look at the Freedom House Index, for example, a country like Rwanda, performs poorly. It is also rated as having among the worst press freedom records in Africa. However, it leads Africa – and the world - in areas like reforestations in several environmental reports, and in giving women a role in politics.

Also while Rwanda, and Ethiopia, are nowhere near the top in democracy rankings, and they are thought not to hold truly free elections, their populations have the highest trust in government institutions. In the case of Rwanda, in the latest World Values Survey, the trust levels are way up with the likes of Norway and Denmark at more than 90 per cent!

Then you come to a country like Kenya, which has poor corruption ratings, had a botched election in December 2007 which ended in the worst post-election violence in its history, and has been declared a “failed state” by Foreign Policy magazine.

However, at the  August 4 constitution referendum, it emerged with easily the most efficiently organised vote in Africa (and indeed the world) ever. The first arrived at the electoral commission’s headquarters in a record seven minutes from the closer of the polls!

So a country that just two years ago had been written off, has a new constitution with an American-style guarantee of the freedom of the media. Article 34 of the new Constitution guarantees the freedom of electronic, print and any other kind of media. It specifically prohibits the Government from interference with or penalising any broadcast , production or dissemination of  information by any media operator. (very few constitutions anywhere are that generous)

So, in Africa, a country’s good performance varies wildly, and a winner in one area, is a loser in another. A “failed state” today, is a trail-blazing one tomorrow.

1 | 2 Next Page »