SWITZERLAND: Five million dollar prize may improve African governance

A new 5 million US dollar prize for good leadership could spur African heads of state to govern better, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Sunday (April 02), who will head the committee giving the award. The annual award, set up by Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim, will go to former presidents and prime ministers from sub-Saharan Africa who left office in the three years prior and who showed exemplary leadership while in power. The Mo Ibrahim Prize, the world's largest award, is "an African initiative by African people", Mo Ibrahim said, stressing that good governance was the key. "The foundation is an African initiative, by African people. It's African money, we are not seeking money from anybody, and rightly so, and what we need really here, is to bring the issue of governance out of the closet, in the open.... I believe the role of good leaders in promoting good governance is really essential and that is the starting point for our recovery," Ibrahim said. Annan said poor governance was a problem in much of his native continent, which is the poorest region of the world and suffers severe health problems including high rates of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. "I think governance has always been an issue of great importance to me, and I've always stressed that without good governance you are building on sand, and that one has to really build on solid bases in a society. And that implies good governance; good governance implies respect for the rule of law, human rights, security of the people for whom you govern, as well as the economic and social welfare. And the leader has to be able to come up with a program and organise himself and his people in a manner that they do achieve these goals or take considerable steps in that direction," he told Reuters in an interview in Geneva. Annan hoped the Mo Ibrahim prize would raise questions on the continent making African rulers more conscious of their records on human rights and democracy. "First of all, I expect that the award of the prize will lead to very serious discussions about governance on the continent, in fact the question you raised, what is good governance?" Annan said. "I think it will energize civil society discussions, it will encourage the leaders themselves to understand that there is some mechanism to judge their performance," he added Annan, a career diplomat, did not mention any African ruler by name and declined to answer questions about Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has drawn international condemnation for a brutal crackdown on opposition leaders in the past month. "I think it will energize, particularly when you come with the requirements and what you expect a leader to produce, you will energize the civil society to also get involved in the debate and have some benchmarks against which to check the performance of their leader," he said. Winners of the prize will get 5 million US dollars over 10 years and then 200,000 US dollars each year for life, with another 200,000 US dollars annually for "good causes" they espouse. By contrast, the Nobel Peace Prize, which Annan won jointly with the U.N. in 2001, pays 1.5 million US dollars. Annan said the award's assessments of African leaders' successes in areas such as economic development, peace and security, and the rule of law would help set a benchmark for other rulers to be measured against. Other members of the panel, which will announce the first winner in October, include former Irish President and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, former Tanzanian Prime Minister Salim Salim, former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former Guinean Education Minister Aicha Bah Diallo.

ITN Source | April 3, 2007

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