Good and Bad Governance in Africa and Beyond

CGD hosted Robert I. Rotberg, Director, Kennedy School of Government's Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University and President, World Peace Foundation for a seminar entitled "Good and Bad Governance in Africa and Beyond."

The demonstrated link among poor governance, poverty, and nation-state failure makes strengthening the quality of governance in the developing world an urgent task. Improving the governance capabilities and effectiveness of developing countries is crucial not only to fostering their economic development, but also to reducing the potential for local and global conflict. There is abundent talk about the need to improve governance in the developing world. Yet, little has been done or accomplished, largely because there is no basis on which a nation-state's governance effectiveness and quality can be assessed objectively and meaningfully. It is therefore essential to introduce a new method that is rigorous, bias-free, and capable of distinguishing degrees of good governance among countries.

Read Robert Rotberg’s article “Strengthening Governance: Ranking Countries Would Help,” recently published in the Washington Quarterly.