The latest Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) for Africa describes the progress made in low-income African countries to strengthen their policies and institutions that help to spur better development outcomes.
The new assessments of the quality of the government policies and institutions that support growth and poverty reduction in Africa have showed some progress for new countries but flat or deteriorating scores for the majority, according to a new World Bank Review.
The CPIA evaluates countries in four areas to determine a country’s final score. These areas include economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusion and equity, and public sector management and institutions.
Out of 38 countries assessed, in overall evaluation 7 saw improvement of their institutions that matter for development. These gainers are Ghana, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Guinea, and Niger.
Twelve countries saw a deterioration in their CPIA score, with Burundi and The Gambia seeing the sharpest declines. However, the overall score for Africa was 3.2, the same as last year.
The backdrop for these developments was a weakened global economic environment. In this context, thirteen African countries saw their scores measuring economic management policies decrease as a result of more difficult external environment and reduced policy
Rwanda was once again the continent’s top performer, registering a 4.0 overall CPIA score. Cabo Verde, Kenya, and Senegal scored an overall 3.8 score. Eritrea and South Sudan were at the low end of the range, with slippages in several policy areas edging down their scores to 1.9.
“The decline in performance was particularly evident in Burundi and South Sudan,” said Punam- Chuhan Pole, World Bank lead economist and author of the report. “The escalation of violence and political and ethnic conflict underscore the need to address the drivers of fragility and to make public institutions more accountable for delivering human development services, security, and justice to citizens.”
This year, the report notes a convergence in the average score for Sub-Saharan Africa’s IDA countries with that of all IDA countries in the world.