Washington - A decade of focus on better governance has brought uneven results across the world, though parts of Africa, South America and Eastern Europe have made great strides, the World Bank said Tuesday. Liberia, Argentina and Ukraine are some of the world's brightest spots in building democratic institutions and rule of law over the last five to 10 years, the aid agency said in its annual global governance survey.
But other countries are falling even further behind, with Zimbabwe seeing the most dramatic drop in the last decade under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe.
"Despite governance gains in some countries, overall quality of governance around the world has not improved much over the past decade," a summary of the report said.
Liberia has made "fantastic improvement" since long-time ruler Charles Taylor was deposed in 2003, but that country's rise next to Zimbabwe's downfall showed just how unbalanced progress has been on the African continent and across the world.
"You have a Liberia, then you have a Zimbabwe - it's a mirror image in the opposite direction," said Daniel Kaufman, co-author and economist at the World Bank.
Mugabe has come under increasing international pressure after a wave of political violence this month forced opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from a run-off election set for Friday.
Such disparities have left the African continent more divided than ever. A number of countries have begun pulling themselves out of the economic doldrums by moving quickly on a path of government reforms, Kaufman said, but some others are continuing to spiral downwards.
"A measure of Afro-optimism is called for," said Kaufman. But "progress reflects reforms in those countries where political leaders, policy makers, civil society and the private sector view good governance and corruption control as crucial for sustained growth."
Argentina has also improved dramatically in combatting corruption in the last 10 years, but other countries on the South American continent - notably Venezuela - have dropped off in the strength of their government institutions.
Some developing countries, especially in Eastern Europe, rank higher than more industrialized neighbours like Greece and Italy. The report also suggests that regional economic alliances and trade pacts can have a significant impact on a country's moves towards reform.
Kaufmann said the draw of European Union membership provided a "very powerful incentive" for the vastly improved institutions in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, which has in part been spurred on by the possibility of joining the EU in future.
The World Bank annual survey, first started in 1996, ranks all countries according to six separate measures of good governance, including corruption, freedom of speech, political stability and government effectiveness.
