There are about a dozen organizations who provide annual reports on the state of affairs in Eritrea.  Invariably, they give a failing report and, invariably, they are attacked by PFDJ supporters for exhibiting bias, for using impractical measures, for being do-gooders interfering in the internal affairs of Eritrea or for being neo-colonialists. Starting in 2000, Dr Mo Ibrahim's foundation has begun issuing reports which are exclusively focused on Africa.  The report's measurements attempt to balance those which focus on human development (irrespective of how the country is ruled, like the UN's Millenium Development Goals) and those that focus primarily on governance (like Transprency International) or single issues (like Reporters Without Borders.)

BIO ON DR. MO (from http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org) “Dr Mo Ibrahim is a global expert in mobile communications with a distinguished academic and business career. Sudanese by birth, Dr Ibrahim is the founder of Celtel International, one of Africa's most successful companies.In 1998, Dr Ibrahim founded MSI Cellular Investments, which was later renamed Celtel International. The company now operates in 15 African countries, under licenses that cover more than a third of the continent's population. The company has invested more than US$ 750 million in Africa, helping to bring the benefits of mobile communications to millions of people across the continent. In 2005, Celtel International was sold to MTC Kuwait for $3.4 billion, making it one of Africa's most successful commercial ventures.”

THE PRIZE: “The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership will be awarded to a former African executive Head of State or Government who has demonstrated excellence in African leadership. Unprecedented in its scale and scope, the Mo Ibrahim Prize consists of US$ 5 million over 10 years and US$ 200,000 annually for life thereafter. A further US$ 200,000 per year for good causes espoused by the winner may be granted by the Foundation during the first ten years.”

THE MEASUREMENTS:

I.  Safety & Security:  Number of armed conflicts; Intensity of the violent conflicts; Number of deaths due to intentional attacks on civilians by governments or formally organized armed groups; Refugees and asylum seekers originating from each country; Internally displaced persons (IDPs); Ease of access to small arms and light weapons; Level of violent crime.

II. Rule of law, transparency & Corruption: Ratification of core international human rights conventions; The presence of international sanctions for human rights violations; Laws on contracts and property rights; Judicial independence; Efficiency of the courts; Efficiency of national institutions regarding contract enforcement; Public sector corruption.

III. Participation & Human Rights: Competitive Executive Elections; Participation of main opposition candidates in executive elections; Competitive Legislative Elections; Participation of main opposition candidates in legislative elections; Respect for physical rights; Respect for civil rights; Press freedom at the most basic level; Press freedom index; Women’s economic rights; Women’s political rights; Women’s social rights.

IV. Sustainable Economic Development: GDP Per Capita; Economic Growth; Annual Inflation rates; Government budget deficits and surpluses as percentage of GDP; Reliability of financial institutions; The overall business environment; The density of a nation’s road network; The availability and reliability of electricity; Cellular phone subscribes per 100 inhabitants; Internet users per 100 inhabitants; Environmental Performance Index

V.  Human Development: What percentage of nationals live on $1 a day? What percentage live before the national poverty line? How equal or unqual is the national distribution of income? Life expectancy at birth;  Infant mortality per 1000 live births; Maternal mortality per 100,000 live births; Undernourishment; Percentage of children immunized against measles; Percentage of children immunized against whooping cough and tetanus; Percentage of people living with HIV;  New TB incidence per 100,000 people; Density of physicians per 100,000 people; Density of nurses per 100,000 people;. Percentage of people with access to potable water; Adult literacy; Adult literacy among women; Primary school completion rate; Pupil/teacher ratio in primary schools; Persistence: Progression from primary to secondary schools; Ratio of female to male students in primary and secondary schools.

THE REPORT CARD & OUR OBSERVATIONS:  You can see the report card, which is called the Ibrahim Index for African Governance here.  Since our focus is Eritrea, we have created a table which indicates the nation with the best score and rank in each category; the nation with the worse score and rank in each category; and where Eritrea stands in each category.  To provide our readers an even more comprehensive view of the report, we have calculated the median score.

Eritrea stands below the median score in all categories.  It ranks in the bottom quartile in 3 of the 6 scores.  It ranks nearly dead last (46 out of 48 nations ranked) in popular participation in governance and human rights and 42^nd in sustained economic development. Most dictatorships claim that the price of prosperity is restricted rights: Eritrea is a state which has neither democracy and human rights nor economic development.

Another observation: Somalia ranks dead last in 4 of the 6 categories; Sudan ranks last in 1 and Chad brings up the tail end in one category.  All of these are nations (Chad by way of Darfur) that seem to occupy the meager resources and time of Eritrea as the regime tries to divert the people’s attention from their dire circumstances by focusing them on nations that are, in some or all regards, in even worse shape than Eritreans are.

When nations that are better off than Eritrea are brought up, the tyrant shamelessly critizes them too: he criticized India for having too many poor people; South Africa for having too many shanty towns; Ethiopia for being a police state; England, for not having free press; and, lastly, America, for not having enough political pluralism because it has only two major political parties and there are no parties for native Americans and African Americans.

One more observation: With the exception of the oil-rich Gabon, every nation on the top quartile (Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Lesotho, Malawi) has plural party system with regular elections, an independent judiciary and free press.  But we are sure this is a coincidence. 

Source: http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/index/overall.pdf