Figure 1 from the report shows that there is a positive relationship between governance improvement and change in per capita GDP. Three of the fastest-growing economies—Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, and Guinea—also saw large improvements in governance, while four of the five countries with the fastest-declining per capita GDP—Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic, Libya, and Burundi—also witnessed a decline in governance performance over the past five years.

These findings suggest that improved governance could correspond to higher levels of economic development. In fact, PwC calculates that, if each African country made an improvement in governance equivalent to that of Côte d’Ivoire, which climbed 23 positions on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance between 2008 and 2017 due to post-civil war reforms, GDP across the continent could increase by $23 billion.

Read the full article about the connection between governance and economic growth by Payce Madden at Brookings.