Survey Says Freedom Linked to Decreased Poverty
FrontLines - September 2009
By Kellie Burk
A 2008 survey of 18 African countries reveals that none can be deemed a consolidated democracy
based on the evaluations of the countries’ own citizens.
The survey was conducted by Afrobarometer, a project that conducts national public attitude surveys on democracy and governance
in Africa. The results were released on Africa Day, May 25, the 10th anniversary of the project.
Although Freedom House ranks nine of the 18 as free, many of these countries are best understood as unconsolidated, hybrid regimes, and a few may be consolidating as autocracies.
Since the survey began in July 1999, more than 105,000 interviews have been conducted in 20 countries. The survey is administered by Michigan State University through a grant from USAID and has helped build a cadre of researchers on the continent.
The results are shared with policymakers in the executive and legislative branches in each country, civil society organizations,
activists, academics, journalists,
donors, and others.
The data allows researchers and policymakers to explore critical trends on the continent, including democratization and regime consolidation, the quality of local and national governance,
social service delivery, poverty reduction, corruption, and institutional trust.
The latest results indicate that most of Africa’s regimes fall short of the standards of full democracies. The results also indicate increasing freedom is linked to decreasing poverty. The link is especially clear in Zambia and Ghana, where poverty has steadily decreased as political freedom has increased since 1999, as well as in Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Madagascar, where the opposite trend has prevailed.
Read more survey results at www.afrobarometer.org.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
Back to Top ^
|
