The Ibrahim Index explained

1. The Ibrahim index is a progressive and responsive tool that that will evolve to accommodate feedback and critiques from various stakeholders such as citizens, civil society, business, governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as taking into account economic and social transformation that may affect the governance context in sub-Saharan Africa. First published in September 2007, the Ibrahim Index assesses the quality of governance in sub-Saharan Africa every year, making it a valuable reference tool for people across the continent to gauge the effectiveness of their national political leadership over a period of time.

2. The 2008 Ibrahim Index is based on data from 2006, the last year with reasonably complete available data for nearly all sub-Saharan Africa countries. A time lag in indices of this nature is standard practice. This is mainly due to problems with data collection and availability. The Ibrahim Index, with its two year time lag, is more up-to-date than many other indices. The data from earlier years are still relevant since the course of progress over time provides the most important analyses of governance changes in a country, and this movement can still be charted with a two year delay.

3. The authors of the Ibrahim index have retrospectively revised the scores and rankings for previous years to reflect newly available data.

4. Full details of the project team are available at moibrahimfoundation.org/index