There have been a number of interesting projects in the past few years to try and increase the transparency levels of governments around the world.  It’s perhaps fair to say that the majority of these have been in the developed world, with datasets opened up, and attempts to hold politicians to account for the things they say.

Such transparency is just as important in the developing world however, especially for those in the development community who struggle to align what they hope to do with the reality on the ground.

So it should be a welcome development that the Mo Ibrahim Foundation have launched a new data portal to provide some 15 years worth of data to try and accurately gauge the success and quality of governments across the continent.

African statistics

The platform was launched on African Statistics Day, and aims to improve the availability of data in Africa.  The team behind the project believe it offers the most comprehensive collection of data on governance anywhere in Africa.

The portal comes complete with tools that allow users to conduct bespoke analysis of government performance since 2000 for each of the continent’s 54 nations.  This analysis can be conducted across all 95 of the standard IIAG indicators, thus providing users with a comprehensive overview of state performance.

What’s more, it’s possible for users to produce visual representations of the data to try and make things easier to share.

“The IIAG Data Portal is a powerful tool that allows anyone who is interested in African governance to make their own assessments using its 95 individual measures of governance. With it, anyone can build on the analysis conducted by the Foundation and produce new and unique findings from the data. We hope that the ability to conduct research of this kind will be invaluable to those seeking to identify solutions to the challenges confronting African nations today,” the team say.

This kind of transparency is likely to be a crucial element in improving government as it provides people with an easy way to truly analyze what is going on.  The team are confident in the power of the data to improve life throughout Africa and allow the continent to fulfill its undoubted potential.