ACCRA, Ghana, Jan 29, – The Mo Ibrahim Foundation (MIF) has unveiled its IIAG Series 2023 Report, emphasising the need for African countries to rely on data in proper decision-making and governance.
The report titled “The Power of Data for Governance: Closing data gaps to accelerate Africa’s transformation,” that was released in Accra, Ghana underscores the pivotal role of sound data in Africa’s governance and development agendas, highlighting how it drives progress, evaluates government performance, establishes policy priorities, and fosters trust in governments.
Drawing from the 2022 IIAG dataset, the report reveals a strong positive correlation between access to high-quality statistics and effective governance across African countries from 2012 to 2021.
However, despite these positive correlations, Africa continues to grapple with significant data gaps, making it the continent most affected by data deficits globally. African countries have the lowest availability of civil registration and vital statistics. In areas crucial to defining public policies, such as population censuses and birth and death registration, many African nations lack essential data.
Even in areas where some progress has been made, significant governance data gaps persist, encompassing issues like health structures, the informal economy, the environment, violence against women, child labor, and illicit financial flows.
A pressing challenge remains the underfunding of data on a global scale, with statistics receiving just 0.34% of total Official Development Assistance (ODA). In Africa, ODA allocated for data and statistics decreased significantly between 2018 and 2021.
The report also outlines vital strategies to enhance data impact and expedite development progress on the continent. These strategies include ensuring the independence of National Statistical Offices, leveraging alternative data sources such as citizen-generated data and private company data, and utilizing technologies like Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
Mo Ibrahim, Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, underscored the critical role of data in advancing key development and policy agendas in Africa:
“Without data, we are driving blind – policies are misdirected and progress on the road to development is stunted. We must act urgently to close the data gap in Africa if we genuinely want to leave no one behind. Data is key to achieving both the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. I have long been thinking that what UN Agenda 2030 should have begun with is an SDG 0 – Sound Data for Governance.”
The report launch took place in Accra, Ghana, at an event co-hosted with Afrobarometer. MIF has consistently supported Afrobarometer since its inception, becoming the leading African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on the continent. Afrobarometer is the exclusive source of the Citizens’ Voices dataset, complementing the IIAG dataset.
The launch followed a two-day meeting of the IIAG Expert Panel in Accra, where the advisory body convened annually in a different African country for in-person consultations on the IIAG.
