Africa Integrity Indicators (AII)

The Africa Integrity Indicators (AII)  is a research project initiated by Global Integrity in 2012, in collaboration with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. AFIDEP is taking over the project from Global Integrity. AII focuses on African governance in practice, examining how policies are implemented to support governments, citizens, and civil society and assessing key social, economic, political, and anti-corruption mechanisms at the national level across all 54 countries of the African continent.Every year, AII produces data through the help of over 120 contributors to generate original governance data: in-country researchers, country specialists, thematic experts, editors. The dataset evaluates both the in-law and in-practice aspects of corruption and governance. Measuring both the existing legal framework and the “in-practice” implementation is key in efforts to produce actionable governance data that help governments, citizens and civil society understand the implementation gap between law and practice, evaluate the status quo and identify intervention points for subsequent reform efforts.Since 2019, the AII dataset has been focusing on 54 in-practice indicators, divided into two main categories:

Transparency and Accountability

The Transparency and Accountability category consists of 30 indicators examining issues divided in the thematic areas of rule of law, accountability, elections, public management integrity, civil service integrity, and access to information. The indicators look into the transparency of the public procurement process, media freedom, asset disclosure requirements, independence of the judiciary, and conflict of interest laws, among many others.

Social Development

The Social Development category consists of 24 indicators about gender, rights, welfare, business environment, health, and education. These indicators have been designed to complement the  Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) in areas not covered by the secondary data sources it employs. As such, it evaluates factual and precise aspects of social development, but does not deliver an aggregate score reflecting a general assessment about an issue.

The project aims to support governments, civil society, and media in 54 African countries to understand and evaluate the status quo of government systems and identify intervention points for subsequent reform efforts.The project’s interventions are further guided by two specific objectives namely;

1. To generate quality, comprehensive, and timely governance indicators on social, economic, political, and anti-corruption mechanisms to lay bare the status of policy implementation in regard to transparency and accountability, and social development
2. To stimulate actions that address persisting governance challenges in Africa

Outcomes from the project include:

• AII Annual dataset
• Engagements with key stakeholders: African governments, African regional institutions, media, and African CSOs
• Policy and Research briefs
• Infographics and short videos based on annual AII results

1. Mo Ibrahim Foundation
2. Global Integrity