Rwanda slams Mo Ibrahim governance index

The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) has challenged the Mo Ibrahim index of African Governance (IIAG) 2013 for releasing misleading data on Rwanda's security, participation and rights.

Anastase Shyaka, chief executive officer of RGB, said Tuesday that the foundation got wrong data on Rwanda's security, participation and rights which don't reflect what is on the ground, Xinhua reported.

"If there is anything Rwanda has improved in the last couple of years is national security, rights and participation, these are areas we can't debate on. Our territory is very safe, Rwanda is the most secure country in Africa and everybody can testify about, " he said.

The IIAG report released Monday in London ranked Rwanda in the subcategories of national security (49th out of 52) scoring 50.4 percent, participation (46th) with a score of 16.0 and rights (45th) scoring 27.5 percent.

"Whether it's because of lack of information, biased or political motive, we have noticed there is a still fraud in the foundation's data sources when it comes to Rwanda. We will continue to engage and share reliable information with them because we have noticed they are open to more dialogue," said the official.

Shyaka also said that Ibrahim foundation did not capture what really Rwanda is at the moment, they should go further and reflect how Rwanda deal with national security, rights and participation.

He said the foundation has been capturing wrong, unreliable data on Rwanda because they rely on data providers who are ill-equipped with real information.

However, the annual report ranked Rwanda among top five "most improved".

"Rwanda shows year-on-year progress since 2000, the biggest improvement in the category of human development, especially in the areas of education and health," the study reads.

The IIAG reveals that governance in Rwanda has improved significantly since 2000. Overall, Rwanda ranks 15th out of 52 African countries surveyed.

According to the survey, Rwanda and Angola are the only two countries within the 2013 IIAG to have shown consistent overall governance improvements since 2000.

Rwanda has made the list of the IIAG's top five "most improved" countries along with Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone and Burundi, all of which are post-conflict countries.

The 2013 IIAG provides full details of Rwanda's performance across four categories of governance including safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.