2010 NGO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa
Whether responding to mudslides in Uganda, fighting corruption in Burundi, or responding to the AIDS pandemic in Mozambique, NGOs across Sub-Saharan Africa are actively responding to the challenges their countries face. The NGO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa reports on the strength and overall viability of the NGO sector in nineteen countries.
The NGO sectors in the 19 countries covered in this year's Index are diverse in terms of their size and influence. While Kenya is home to over 350,000 organizations, the sector in Sierra Leone consists of a mere 285 registered NGOs, 118 of which are international organizations. In Tanzania, the vibrant NGO sector actively engages with the government on policy issues and provides critical services to vulnerable communities. Angolan NGOs, on the other hand, struggle to operate in a restrictive environment that offers them little space to engage in advocacy or service provision.
This year's Index shows more improvement than deterioration over the past year. Five countries—Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, and Mali—improved their overall sustainability this year. While some countries experienced backsliding in individual dimensions of sustainability, no country experienced an overall deterioration in sustainability this year.
There is great diversity in the levels of development of the various NGO sectors examined in the 2010 report. However, they all continue to be works in progress: not a single score for the Africa Index falls within the highest category of development—Sustainability Enhanced. Over two-thirds of the countries covered in the Index continue to fall in the middle category, Sustainability Evolving, with the remaining six—Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Gabon, Ethiopia, Guinea, and Angola—in Sustainability Impeded, the lowest category.
Below you can find an interactive map of the region depicting the countries covered by the 2010 NGO Sustainability Index. By clicking on a country on the map you can obtain a summary of that country's overall score and its scores on the individual dimensions of NGO sustainability as well their trends since 2009. Each dimension is assessed on a scale of one to seven, where one represents the highest degree of sustainability. Below the map, you can download the complete report, individual country reports, and the raw scoring data.
