Egypt's high political participation, low personal safety: IIAG

The IIAG classifies its data within four categories: safety & rule of law, participation & human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development. Each African country is ranked according to its performance in these fields, getting a score out of 100. The study is published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

Collectively, Egypt scored 55 out of 100, which is higher than the African average (51.6) and North African regional average (54), placing the country on rank 19 out of 52 African countries. Egypt dropped four score-points compared to the last six years. The list was topped by Mauritius (82.9), while Somalia came in last with a score of 8.

Egypt scored highest in the sub-category “Rural Sector”, which falls under Sustainable Economic Opportunity, as it was ranked 4th out of the 52 African states in terms of public resources for rural development, access to land and water for low income rural populations, agricultural research, extension services, input, policy costs and produce markets, dialogue between government and rural organizations and policy and legal framework for rural organizations.

The subcategory “Business Environment” took a strong hit, dropping 10 points since 2011, but still positioning Egypt on place number 9 in comparison to the other African states. “Sustainable Economic Opportunity” and “Infrastructure” barely changed, both in which Egypt lies above African average.

Egypt’s human development efforts and outcomes - which were evaluated according to education, welfare and health - witnessed little changes, according to the report, whereas a dynamic jump happened in the category of participation and human rights. Political participation rose by nearly 22 points from 2011 to 2012, yet still remaining below African average. In terms of gender and rights, barely any change happened compared to the year before.

The largest decline took place in the sub-category “Personal Safety”, which falls under safety and rule of law. Egypt dropped about 30 points in six years in terms of personal safety, reaching 28.3 points and ranking 45 among 52 African countries. National Security rose slightly by 2.4 points since 2011, and rule of law dropped by 13.3 points since the aforementioned year, nevertheless remaining above the African average of 49.7.