Participation and Human Rights by country

Countries reporting

Highest

81.72

Cape Verde

Lowest

10.02

Somalia

Median

47.46

Years covered

2000–2011

Data points

696

What the numbers show

Participation and Human Rights is currently reported for 52 countries. The highest value is 81.72 in Cape Verde; the lowest is 10.02 in Somalia.

The median across all reporting countries is 47.46, and the mean is 47.59.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 8.

Over the past decade 33 countries rose and 19 fell. The largest increase was in Liberia (up 128.1%), and the largest decrease in Madagascar (down 39.3%).

Participation and Human Rights: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Cape Verde	81.72	2011	up 8.7%	rising
2	Mauritius	78.25	2011	up 2.1%	flat
3	South Africa	73.31	2011	down 5.8%	falling
4	Botswana	71.14	2011	down 2.8%	flat
5	Namibia	69.98	2011	down 7.4%	falling
6	Ghana	69.23	2011	up 0.6%	flat
7	Sao Tome and Principe	65.11	2011	up 4.1%	flat
8	Seychelles	64.43	2011	down 2.3%	flat
9	Tanzania	62.26	2011	up 1.9%	flat
10	Benin	61.33	2011	down 0.0%	flat
11	Lesotho	60.44	2011	up 4.2%	rising
12	Mali	60.34	2011	up 8.1%	flat
13	Malawi	59.94	2011	up 9.1%	rising
14	Senegal	59.61	2011	down 12.2%	falling
15	Zambia	59.07	2011	up 14.8%	rising
16	Mozambique	57.88	2011	down 10.6%	falling
17	Burkina Faso	57.06	2011	up 7.0%	rising
18	Niger	55.2	2011	up 6.7%	falling
19	Uganda	54.81	2011	up 7.7%	rising
20	Sierra Leone	54.6	2011	up 13.5%	rising
21	Liberia	53.18	2011	up 128.1%	rising
22	Kenya	50.58	2011	down 6.3%	falling
23	Mauritania	50.29	2011	up 17.5%	rising
24	Comoros	48.79	2011	up 31.1%	rising
25	Gabon	48.59	2011	up 12.2%	rising
26	Guinea	48.53	2011	up 59.3%	rising
27	Tunisia	46.38	2011	up 15.8%	flat
28	Burundi	45.99	2011	up 39.9%	rising
29	Rwanda	43.23	2011	up 23.2%	rising
30	Madagascar	42.13	2011	down 39.3%	falling
31	Angola	42.03	2011	up 88.1%	rising
32	Gambia	40.8	2011	down 25.1%	falling
33	Congo	40.41	2011	up 22.9%	rising
34	Guinea-Bissau	40.02	2011	down 28.4%	falling
35	Togo	39.79	2011	up 27.8%	rising
36	Algeria	38.97	2011	up 3.4%	rising
37	Nigeria	38.48	2011	down 8.1%	falling
38	Djibouti	37.95	2011	up 9.2%	flat
39	Ethiopia	36.31	2011	down 9.6%	falling
40	Central African Republic	34.44	2011	up 13.8%	rising
41	Morocco	34.34	2011	down 4.0%	falling
42	Democratic Republic of Congo	33.19	2011	up 59.1%	rising
43	Cameroon	32.02	2011	down 9.9%	falling
44	Cote d'Ivoire	31.87	2011	down 13.8%	falling
45	Zimbabwe	31.72	2011	down 8.9%	falling
46	Egypt	31.1	2011	up 1.2%	rising
47	Eswatini	29.73	2011	up 9.8%	rising
48	Chad	29.06	2011	up 0.7%	falling
49	Equatorial Guinea	24.74	2011	up 31.6%	rising
50	Libya	22.63	2011	up 22.9%	rising
51	Eritrea	21.76	2011	down 13.6%	falling
52	Somalia	10.02	2011	down 18.4%	falling

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) 49.75
Sub-Saharan Africa 49.2
Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa and Nigeria 48.9
Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa 48.67
Africa 47.59
North Africa 35.23

About this data

Indicator: Participation and Human Rights
Source: Mo Ibrahim Foundation, electronic files and web site
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 58 places, 696 data points, 2000–2011
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Participation: Within this sub-category the Ibrahim Index measures: (i) Political Participation – extent to which citizens have relevant information and the freedom to participate in the political process. (ii) Effective Power to Govern – extent to which democratically elected leaders have the effective power to govern, or the extent of veto powers and political enclaves. (iii) Free and Fair Elections – extent to which leaders are determined by free and fair elections. (iv) Electoral Self-determination – right of citizens to freely decide their political system and leadership. (v) Free and Fair Executive Elections – integrity of executive elections.