This 4th edition of the African Governance Report provides a critique of perception-based measurements of corruption as well as an assessment of existing alternative mostly mixed measures of corruption. It highlights that pure perception-based measurements are highly subjective and do not provide insights into the institutional and policy reforms needed to combat corruption and improve economic governance. They also fail to take into account the international dimension of corruption. The report argues that the problem of corruption has to be assessed and addressed in the context of overall economic governance taking into consideration both its domestic and international dimensions. It also presents policy recommendations related to improving transparency and accountability enhancing ownership and participation in the fight against corruption building credible national economic governance institutions and improving the regional and global economic governance architecture.

The African Governance Report is the most comprehensive report on governance in Africa assesses and monitors the progress African countries are making on governance identifies capacity gaps in governance institutions and proposes polices and strategic interventions aimed at promoting good governance on the continent. It focuses on political and economic governance development of the private sector and corporate governance checks and balances in political power institutional effectiveness and accountability of the executive human rights and the rule of law corruption and institutional capacity building. The theme of this second edition of the Report is that Africa has made progress in improving governance.