Could a governance scorecard reduce corruption and improve governance in Africa? In Nigeria? Could it hold leaders accountable and improve government performance? Could it reduce corruption and ensure that citizens participate in important decisions that affect their lives? It’s a lot to ask of a scorecard, but Rwanda, which has pioneered this model, has seen an amazing improvement in economic, political and social development. This progress is due, in large part, to a series of “local initiatives” that track government performance, engage ordinary citizens in that monitoring, and hold leaders accountable for achieving measurable progress in their communities and countries. Results from Rwanda indicate that holding leaders accountable with a measurable scorecard could do all of these things in Nigeria and in Africa.
Since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda has achieved impressive development results, including rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. At 61.3 percent, Rwanda has the highest proportion of women in parliament of any country in the world. Innovative use of technology, such as drones, is being used to deliver medicine to remote areas. With a very high rate of immunization, near-universal insurance coverage, and a focus on gender equity and women’s education, Rwanda has seen rapid and significant declines in infant, child, and maternal mortality.
Life expectancy for women in Rwanda is 71 years; in Nigeria, it is 56. For men, it is 67 in Rwanda and 54 in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) is 74. In Rwanda, it is 26. In Nigeria, 1,222 women per 100,000 die during pregnancy or childbirth. In Rwanda, this maternal mortality ratio is 297. This is despite the fact that Nigeria is, by all measuressignificantly richer than Rwanda.
How did this happen, since Rwanda was devastated in 1994; essentially, there was no country, but only death and destruction everywhere.
To achieve rapid and impressive change like this, at least four things are required: a shared vision of a better future, a plan to implement the vision, a way to monitor progress (or not) toward that vision, and the accountability of those who make it happen. are in charge of implementing the vision. All these elements exist in Rwanda.
After the 1994 genocide, Rwanda developed what they call local solutions to address some of its huge social challenges. All of these local solutions involve citizens in the evaluation of public services such as education, health and leadership, and all are based on traditional practices. In short, they make leaders responsible for looking after the common good. Few outside of Rwanda understand or appreciate the importance of these citizen efforts and the level of citizen participation in governance.
Three of the most significant are called the Ubudehe, Imihigo, and the Rwanda Governance Scorecard. Ubudehe is a participatory process developed from a traditional concept of collective work in agriculture. Ubudehe took place when all social and ethnic groups prepared the fields together before the rains and planting season came. It now refers to a participatory budgeting and planning process at the village level, whereby citizens themselves allocate decentralized funds according to village priorities. Imihigo is a traditional ritual that occurred when a group of people came together and publicly participated in activities that tested their bravery. The community was being tested as much as the individual. Imihigo is now used in Rwanda at all levels to represent a performance management contract. It is used to establish and assess progress in all areas: education, health, governance, food security, business, etc. It is a powerful tool used to make leaders accountable and transparent.
The Rwanda Governance Scorecard, produced by the Rwanda Government Junta was launched ten years ago to assess the state of governance in Rwanda. The scorecard assesses performance across eight essential “pillars”: the rule of law, political rights and civil liberties, participation and inclusion, security, investment in human and social development, economic and corporate governance, and the fight against corruption. In each pillar, data is collected from the most reliable international and national data sources, including IMIHIGO, as well as national citizen satisfaction data from the Citizen Report Card. The Citizen Report Card is a public audit tool in which citizens provide feedback on the provision of services in Agriculture, Livestock, Infrastructure, Land and the private sector, Education, Health, Hygiene and sanitation, Social welfare and family affairs, Violence Gender, Local Administration, Justice, Governance and Human Rights and Security.
The Governance Scorecard uses data from the Citizen Report Card, as well as many other indicators and data sources. It is a complex and statistically sound company. The data is compared to national and sector goals and commitments, to determine where progress is or is not being made on these commitments. Scorecard results are taken very seriously in Rwanda. Leaders are accountable for achieving agreed goals. Numerous senior leaders have lost their jobs for not progressing in their specific industry. This year, the safety and security pillar that focuses on personal safety and property, national security and reconciliation, social cohesion and unity, received the highest score of 95.5 percent, certainly a score very enviable from the Nigerian point of view.
According to Emmanuel Nibishaka, Deputy Executive Director of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) which coordinates all these efforts, the scorecard “has helped us monitor, assess and improve our social, economic and political development. It has consistently triggered key policy actions and strategies that have helped us improve underperforming sectors.”
These local, data-driven initiatives have helped foster a culture of accountability and transparency. Each community knows the common goals because they helped identify them, and thanks to the scorecard, each community can see if their leaders are achieving measurable results.
There are performance scorecards in Nigeria and Africa, but they are not institutionalized and leaders are not held accountable. They are mostly from civil society and non-governmental organizations. The most popular and most referenced is the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation). Nigeria has consistently scored below 50% and ranks in the bottom 20%, despite being the largest economy in Africa.
There have been four coups in West Africa in the last two years. A common thread is that governments are not working for ordinary citizens. Corruption, poor performance and citizen frustration are common denominators in all these countries where the military has taken power. Could regular self-assessment and holding leaders accountable for why they were elected help prevent coups and lead to improvements in development, as happened in Rwanda?
At AUN I teach a development course for all our incoming students. Last week, I put up a table listing some basic development indicators for Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. I asked them which country they thought was having the best development results. The data was clear. The students’ response was Rwanda. Although incomes are not as high there, as the students pointed out, life expectancy was higher and maternal, infant and child mortality was lower. His choice was reasonable.
Surely it is clear: holding leaders accountable is the only way Nigeria and other countries can achieve much-needed progress in human development at this special moment in history. The dashboards, in addition to other fundamental reforms, would seem to be a very useful tool for this purpose.
Newslodge.
