And the winner is… no one
It’s not a good sign when your leadership prize runs out of eligible candidates to honor after a whopping two years. Welcome to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, whose winner was meant to be announced in London today. This year the Prize Committee has considered some credible candidates. However, after ...
It's not a good sign when your leadership prize runs out of eligible candidates to honor after a whopping two years. Welcome to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, whose winner was meant to be announced in London today.
This year the Prize Committee has considered some credible candidates. However, after in-depth review, the Prize Committee could not select a winner."
It’s not a good sign when your leadership prize runs out of eligible candidates to honor after a whopping two years. Welcome to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, whose winner was meant to be announced in London today.
This year the Prize Committee has considered some credible candidates. However, after in-depth review, the Prize Committee could not select a winner.”
Yikes. It’s been a rough year for African governance. A coup in Guinea led off the year last November, followed shortly by another unwelcome transition of power in Madagascar. Retiring heads of state this year included only Ghana’s John Kufuor and South Africa’s Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, who served for under a year. All the other elections were marred by voting irregularities, repression, and/or the reinstatement of long-time rulers for whom 3rd term is not a dirty word.
The good news? The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was founded to make a statement about the need for more and better African Leadership — and it has certainly done that this year.
SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth Dickinson is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.
More from Foreign Policy


Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.


So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.


Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.


Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.