Governments are like soccer

Even though Americans like to call their professional sports league champions “World Champions,” everyone else knows America hasn’t quite warmed up to the world’s most popular sport, soccer. Played in most if not every inhabited corner of the world, soccer is universal yet locally unique. Italian soccer is boring, while Brazilian soccer is exhilirating; yet both are traditionally the best in the world. Brazil holds a record five World Cups and Italy is second, with four.

Governments are like soccer – they are everywhere, but not everywhere the same. Political leaders in developing countries have not always taken on the challenge of good governance; and when they do, they’ve often tried to emulate political leaders in developed markets. The problem is: Brazil is not Italy and Italy is not Brazil.

Improving governments in developing markets isn’t about importing wholesale elements of established models into younger governments. That may happen, but only where local institutions are similar; usually that isn’t the case. Rather than emulating others, leaders in developing markets need to take a look at themselves to find and correct where government policy is out of tune with their own people’s values and institutions.

None of that is earth-shattering, but the Ibrahim Index of African Governance may shatter something. In the words of founder and cellular phone mogul, Mo Ibrahim:

“We are shining a light on governance in Africa, and in so doing we are making a unique contribution to improving the quality of governance. The Ibrahim Index is a tool to hold governments to account and frame the debate about how we are governed. Africans are setting benchmarks not only for their own continent, but for the world.” Read more.

Ibrahim is a Sudanese entrepreneur who made a fortune in the private sector, so it’s no surprise that the index includes significant metrics underlying a thriving market economy; including road density, electric capacity, property laws, and even the average number of days to settle a contract dispute – all as components of good governance. Above all, the index isn’t coming from a far-off Washington think tank or even a well-intentioned NGO; it’s coming from one African to the rest of Africa. Flawed as such indices will always be, perhaps this one will become the diamond mine of local reform ideas that Africa has so long awaited.