On International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9), the LAREG (“Laboratoire de Recherches et d’Etudes sur la Gouvernance”), a recently founded Senegal-based association with the aim to provide innovative research on governance issues in Africa, in partnership with the Africa Governance Institute (AGI) and the Cheikh Antiop University of Dakar (UCAD), took the initiative to convene a multi-stakeholder discussion on the measurements of governance and corruption in Africa. Over 100 participants from relevant government institutions from Senegal, including the National Commission for the Fight against Non-Transparency and Corruption and several key Ministries, representatives from other francophone African countries, members of the West-African academic community, several local, regional and international NGO representatives, University students, and donor and international organizations representatives sat together for a whole day in Dakar University’s conference room to learn, exchange and debate on the challenges of measuring governance and corruption in a way that actually makes a difference for African countries.

 

The motivation behind this event was the observation of the following fact: no matter how many new and most sophisticated indices on corruption and governance cover Africa (be they global or regional indices), these are not used in the way their producers had intended, by the African actors whose behavioral change could actually improve the governance situation on the ground. They are often distorted within a polarized debate in the media or between politicized civil society organizations, from which the African scientific community is usually left out, and African leaders and decision-makers tend to either reject the indices outright or look for justifications for their country’s position in the different rankings. Questions need to be raised on legitimacy in the production process of these indices, on their economic and political consequences for the concerned countries, and the actual role of multiple African actors in their understanding and use.

 

This day thus offered a space for an alternative debate between the producers and the consumers of corruption and governance indices, in order to provide clarifications as well as criticism and recommendations, and attempt to reduce the gap between the different stakeholders involved in the measurement of governance, from the international organization producing a global Index down to the average African citizen, through donors, governments, academicians and local NGOs.

 

First, renowned international and regional organizations were invited to present the indices their produce, including Transparency International, the World Bank or the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. African researchers then intended to provide a critical analysis of these measurement tools. Finally, the floor was handed over to the national Senegalese actors from government and civil society.

 

UNDP’s Oslo Governance Centre/Global Programme on Democratic Governance Assessments, as an institution that has been asking and working precisely on the critical questions raised at this event, was invited to present its guidance for users of governance indicators, including its Governance Indicators: A Users’ Guide and its Users’ Guide to Measuring Corruption, as well as its approach to participatory country-led governance assessments, and to moderate part of the debate.