Acknowledgements
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a product of many minds and hands. We gratefully acknowledge, on this first Index, the research assistance of Emmanuel Bagenda, Renata Campante, Sue Drummond Haley, Maya Horii, Zekarias Hussain, Heather Jensen, Michelle Lyden, Stephanie Schwartz, Melesse Tashu, Vanessa Tucker, Curtis Valentine, Deborah West, Emily Wood, Rebecca Wright, and Adam Ziegfeld. Marie Besançon conducted earlier research on the project and graciously shared her files.
In the process of compiling the data for this project, we have relied on the support of numerous individuals and institutions. David L. Richards, Co-Director of the Cingranelli-Richards Human Rights Data Project, provided insight into their project and graciously shared with us preliminary data for 2005. Andrew Williamson, of the Economist Intelligence Unit, was helpful with regard to the Global Peace Index. Bruce Bolnick produced interesting macroeconomic work on selected countries for USAID and kindly shared it with us. Sara Repucci of Transparency International guided us to critical findings. Eric Beinhart, of the U.S. Department of Justice, provided advice about the available data on crime. Kenneth J. Menkhaus shared his knowledge on Somalia. Various individuals at the World Bank provided information about their data, including Uranbileg Batjargal of the Development Data Group. The sources of all of our information are cited throughout the notes to the Index.
In researching other indices and governance projects, we received useful insight from a number of individuals, including Peter Eigen of Transparency International. Georges Nzongola- Ntalaja and Musinga T. Bandora discussed with us the work of the UNDP and Oslo Governance Centre. We also received valuable guidance at a very early stage from Dani Kaufmann, leader of the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators Project, and Goran Hyden and Verena Fritz of ODI’s World Governance Assessment. Nathaniel Heller and Marianne Camerer of the Global Integrity Index were generous in sharing their work and ideas. So were Stephanie Ortbals-Tibbs, Andrew Green, and others working on the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law project.
Fortunately, the Index has a robust and involved Advisory Council including Keli Gadzekpo (Executive Vice-Chairman, Databank, Ghana); Moss Ngoasheng (Executive Chairman of Safika Holdings (Pty) Limited, South Africa); Nawal Nour (Director, African Women's Health Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Sudan); Julie Oyegun (Director, World Bank Group, Diversity Programs, Nigeria); Rotimi Suberu (Professor of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria); and Geraldine Umugwaneza (former Supreme Court Justice, Rwanda). Lord Mark Malloch Brown, now minister of state for Africa, Asia, and the United Nations in the British government, contributed wisely to our deliberations at an early stage.
Fortunately, too, the Index has benefited from the advice of Mo Ibrahim and members of the Board of Trustees of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, several of whom visited the Index and added to our sources of good ideas. Philip Khoury, chair, and each of the other members of the Board of Trustees of the World Peace Foundation were closely involved with the Index and its several predecessor studies and offered excellent support and wise counsel.