Private Sector Leadership
The former head of Mozambique, President Joaquim Chissano, is the first winner of the Mo Ibrahim prize for governance; an award financed by and named after the prominent Sudanese cell phone millionaire. The cash prize of $5 million over 10 years and then $200,000 per year is awarded to the top former African leader of the past three years. Mr. Ibrahim is essentially trying to create incentives for good governance among African leaders.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented Mr. Chissano with his award – Annan chaired the illustrious panel that was responsible for making the pick this year.
Mr. Chissano is a worthy winner, having brought peace to his country in 1992 and in a move reminiscent of former South African President Mandela he declined to run for reelection in 2004 despite being constitutionally able to do so.
I have thought a bit about this award, and read some of the concerns raised by critics. On balance, I have to say that I feel that this is a terrific idea – anything that can positively encourage good governance in Africa is worth looking at and I think that Mr. Ibrahim should be commended for putting his money where his mouth is. After all, at a time when many private sector groups are playing such a negative role in Africa, it is nice to see one business man trying to show some leadership.
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Raj – I agree that while Ibrahim could have set up a foundation or sponsored an aid project with that money, the potential impact of a responsibly selected and transparently administered good gvernance prize is immeasurably larger. I think of it as the inverse of the negative incentive imposed on world leaders by an international criminal court (ICC, ICTY, ICTR, etc) that threatens to punish them personally for crimes committed as head of state. The two mechanisms (trials and prizes) can work hand in hand as a kind of moderating influence on some of the perverse incentives African and other developing world leaders face today. The more personally costly aberrant behavior is made, and the more rewarding real progress seems, the more likely leaders are to devote themselves to the latter and not the former.
Comment on October 23, 2007 @ 9:06 am