In the news
Not such a safe place
By Peter Fabricus
9 October 2007
Index rates us as third most dangerous country in sub-Saharan Africa, writes Peter Fabricius
South Africa likes to think of itself as the most successful country in Africa and certainly something of a safe haven on a continent widely portrayed as violent and dangerous.
We send forth missions to help other countries to the north resolve their conflicts, to provide safer environments for their people to live and work in.
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Mo's Top-10 shows African values are those of all decent societies...
By Charles Onyango-Obbo
3 October 2007
Mo Ibrahim, that son of East Africa who founded the pan-African mobile phone company Celtel and made a huge fortune when he cashed out, last year announced that he would use some of his cash to help good causes in Africa.
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Price for achievement in African leadership
By Mo Ibrahim
2 October 2007
Seven years ago this month, world leaders gathered in New York and agreed an ambitious range of targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, and illiteracy. As we approach the halfway mark to the 2015 deadline for achieving the World Development Goals, there has been much discussion of our chances of success.
Read more:
http://businessdayonline.com/Analysis/Comments/285.html
A Reward For Good Behavior
1 October 2007
Mo Ibrahim's ideas have been labeled wacky before. A decade ago, when even American consumers were just getting used to cell phones, he decided that the real growth market was sub-Saharan Africa. "I'm not a visionary," says Ibrahim, 61, a Sudanese businessman who was raised in Egypt and now lives in London. "Things are obvious, but most of us just don't open our eyes."
Read more:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/41725
‘If Africa can produce Mandela, it can produce more like him’
By Alice Miles and Helen Rumbelow
13 October 2007
A visionary telecoms billionaire is fighting corruption with an annual $5 million prize for the continent’s most effective leader.
In a shabby rented flat in 1950s Alexandria, in Egypt, a small boy with barely enough food to eat dreamt of becoming the next Einstein or Marie Curie.
Read more:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2648551.ece
It's better to be out to sea
27 September 2007
The islands do rather better than the mainland. That is just one finding of an exercise to measure the performance of sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries, judged by five sets of criteria that are totted up and averaged out to give each country an overall governance score. Mauritius and the Seychelles are run-away winners, with Botswana best of the mainlanders.
Read more:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9868062
Index to judge African leadership
By William Wallis
26 September 2007
An attempt to create the most comprehensive annual benchmarks to measure the performance of governments in Africa shows the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius to be the best-governed country in Africa, Somalia the worst, and Rwanda the fastest improving.
Read more:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/baa7ed60-6bba-11dc-863b-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Kenya ranked fifteenth on Africa's good governance list
By Jeff Otieno
26 September 2007
Kenya has been ranked 15th out of 48 countries on good governance and economic management in sub-Saharan Africa.
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SA placed fifth on latest African governance index
25 September 2007
South Africa is placed fifth on the latest Mo Ibrahim Foundation Index of African Governance with a score of 71,2 while top-ranking Mauritius scored 86,2, according to a new good governance index published on Tuesday.
Read more:
http://www.mg.co.za
The fifth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture
by Kofi Annan
22nd July 2007
I wish we had more of that sort of competition in the family of nations. Countries vying for the best standing in respect for human rights, trying to outscore each other in governance. Performances ranked for all the world to see. Governments held accountable for whether goals are met. Citizens taking pride in the results.
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Sustainable development in Africa requires good governance
By Dr. Mo Ibrahim
Issue 1, 2007
The significance of the selection of Africa for the first official overseas visit of Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General of the United Nations cannot be overstated. Promoting stability and development in the region must continue to be at the heart of the Organization's work.
Read more:
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2007/issue1/0107p24.htm
Face Value - Africa Calling
24 May 2007
Mo Ibrahim helped to bring mobile phones to Africa. Now he has bigger plans.
In 1998, as the telecoms boom was under way, Mo Ibrahim was amazed that big companies were rushing into the mobile-phone business around the world, yet not in Africa. There they saw only problems: poverty, unrest and corruption. Mr Ibrahim, a veteran of the telecoms industry in Britain and Sudan, was at the time running a consultancy he had founded in London. Amid the cigar smoke and snifters that followed its directors' dinners, an idea formed. Might it be possible to set up a pan-African mobile operator - and to do so without paying bribes?
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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Mohammed Ibrahim - Connection for Africa
By Thomas Scheen
13 August 2007
He is regarded as the pioneer of the mobile phone in Africa and has created the most successful business on the African continent. Mohammed Ibrahim is to invest the millions earned from the sale of his company in a kind of Nobel Prize for the region. His message: “Africa's worth it”.
Read online:
http://berufundchance.fazjob.net/s/Rub2309A3DB4F3C4474B93AA8610A24AE0A/Doc~
E2F9AAC4A645640E79E33D7C077CB0939~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
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Libération
Africa, enough!
By Thomas Hofnung
11th April 2007
Mo Ibrahim, 61, a Sudanese-British businessman who made his money in the world of telecommunications, enjoins the continent's leaders to buckle down rather than damning the West.
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2 April 2007
After the announcement that Kofi Annan will chair the judging panel for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, Martin Plaut discussed with the former UN Secretary General why he has accepted the post.
Martin Plaut then discussed with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mo Ibrahim Foundation Prize Committee member, how the award will be judged.
Listen to these interviews:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/focusonafrica/news/story/2007/04/070402_award.shtml
Frost over the World
1 June 2007
Sir David Frost interviews Dr Ibrahim.
With the G8 summit in Germany fast approaching, Africa is once again back on the international agenda. And a man who has his own vision for the continent is Mo Ibrahim, a very successful businessman who has launched a new foundation and prize dedicated to promoting good governance in Africa. The prize - the biggest in the world - is worth more than $5 million, and will be awarded to former heads of state in Africa who rule well and have left office. So could this prize work to tackle corruption in the region and increase enterprise?
Watch online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA8DosNXfuA
What Africa really needs is visionary leadership
By Salim Ahmed Salim
9 April 2007
Half a century ago, Africa stood on the brink of a new era. The “winds of change” were just beginning to sweep across the continent, bringing with them newfound optimism, as millions of Africans were emancipated and new nations set out on the path of independence. None of this would have been possible without the visionary leadership of men such as Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, leaders who are rightly revered to this day.
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Continent will reap reward of good leadership
By Dr. Mamphela Ramphele
5 April 2007
Africa is leading the world. How often do we hear this said? Perhaps when our athletes excel at the Olympic Games? Or when tourist companies promote the beauty of our countries? But rarely do we hear Africa celebrated for advancing leadership and the good governance of our nations. This is about to change.
Read online:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200704050143.html
Laying seeds for good governance in Africa
By Stan Oziewicz
8 January 2007
Mohamed Ibrahim, or Mo as he prefers to be known, was born in Sudan, one of the most destitute and conflicted places on Earth. That alone makes him an improbable billionaire, philanthropist and African visionary. And, until recently when he caught the world's attention by launching an auspicious plan using his own money to improve governance on the continent, he's been able to keep a modestly low profile. “I am a concerned person,” Mr. Ibrahim, 60, says. “I consider myself to be an international citizen, in the sense that I am interested in global warming, the future of our children. Working in Africa I could not fail to notice that much needs to be done. There is too much misery, Africa is falling behind.”
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A Nobel for Honest Politicians
By J.F.O. McAllister
26 October 2006
Mobile phone magnate Mo Ibrahim funds a new prize to honor African leaders who stand out in a continent sapped by corruption.
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1550818,00.html
Africa: Celtel Founder Explains Reasons for Leadership Prize
26 October 2006
Celtel founder Mo Ibrahim told AllAfrica about his groundbreaking $5 million prize for African leadership, the largest award in the world.
Read more:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610260012.html
Sudanese tycoon hopes $5m prize will stop leaders clinging to office
By Tom Burgis
26 October 2006
A self-made Sudanese multi-millionaire will today announce an ambitious project to foster good governance in Africa by offering a huge cash prize to entice leaders tempted to cling to power to leave office.
Read more:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/647c3506-648e-11db-ab21-0000779e2340.html
African Leaders Offered $5 Million Performance Prize
By Alan Cowell
26 October 2006
After the Nobels, the Pulitzers, the Oscars, why not a prize for African presidents?
But not just any president, of course.
At a news conference in London today, Mo Ibrahim, a 60-year-old Sudanese-born billionaire who made his money in the cellphone business, announced the creation of what he called the world's biggest prize - $5 million, spread over 10 years, for the sub-Saharan African president showing the greatest commitment to good governance.
Read more:
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/10/26/world/africa/27africacnd.html