CPIA Africa, June 2012 : Assessing Africa's Policies and Institutions

Abstract

The World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) is an important knowledge product that assesses the performance of 39 IDA countries along 16 dimensions of policy and institutional quality. This is the first in the series of annual reports. The 16 dimensions are grouped into four clusters: economic management; structural policies; policies for social inclusion and equity; and public sector management and institutions. The CPIA has been measuring and tracking the strength of policies and institutions in IDA-eligible countries since 1980, and releasing that information since 2006. Until now, the CPIA has been used mainly to inform IDA's allocation of resources to poor countries and in research. Yet the information contained in the CPIA is potentially valuable to governments, the private sector, civil society, researchers and the media as a tool to monitor their country's progress and benchmark it against progress in other countries. By presenting the CPIA scores for 38 African countries over six years in one easy-to-read document, this report aims to provide citizens with information that can support evidence-based debate that can, in turn, lead to better development outcomes. The scope of the report is motivated by the World Bank's open data initiative and the new Africa strategy, both of which seek to foster participation in development from a wide range of stakeholders by providing broader access to data and knowledge.