Minister Morgan queries validity of Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s findings |09 October 2015

Seychelles finds itself in first position in East Africa and scored positively in human development and sustainable economic opportunity categories of the assessment following the publication of the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

Seychelles remains one of the top performing countries in many of the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance’s governance components and is ranked sixth out of 54 countries assessed by the organisation on the African continent. 

Foreign Affairs and Transport Minister Joël Morgan has, however, queried the Mo Ibrahim Foundation as to the validity of some of its findings which have resulted in Seychelles being downgraded by one position since last year.

In a letter addressed to Dr Ibrahim, he drew particular attention to two sub categories of the index, relating to safety and rule of law and participation and human rights, which contributed to the position slip. He highlighted the lack of data available on key indices from various international organisations and also stressed the need for them to visit Seychelles to gain a true and transparent understanding of the situation on the ground. 

“We have the deepest respect for the valuable work and contribution made by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation towards the progress of not only Seychelles but also Africa as a whole in terms of upholding key democratic values and principles. However, clarity and transparency of the data used to assess Seychelles is of pivotal importance. With skewed data sets a real representation of the reality of Seychelles is not possible,” said Minister Morgan in his letter.

He also reiterated the invitation made by President James Michel since 2013 for the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to visit Seychelles to gain a greater appreciation of the considerable progress Seychelles has made on a number of fronts on issues relating to good governance, democracy, the rule of law and sustainable development.