Lecturer Influences $5M Prize

A billionaire cell-phone entrepreneur has promised millions of dollars to chosen African heads of state—and has given a Harvard lecturer the power to influence the selection.

Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese cell phone entrepreneur based in the United Kingdom, recently announced plans to offer a $5 million award to a retired sub-Saharan African head of state who he determines has demonstrated good governance while in office and democratically ceded his position to his successor.

That amount is the largest prize the world has seen yet, surpassing the $1.3 million of this year’s 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the BBC.

Kennedy School of Government Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy Robert I. Rotberg and a team of researchers are creating an index to evaluate former heads of state from 48 sub-Saharan African countries. That index will quantify a candidate’s efforts on providing security, rule of law, economic opportunity, political freedom, educational services, health services, infrastructure development, and empowerment of civil society, Rotberg said.

“It will almost certainly raise the thinking in African heads of state about how best to leave office, which presumably helps limit the extent of corruption,” Rotberg said. “The prize permits them to be judged by opinion, both for honor and money.”

The winner will receive a personal award of $5 million over a 10-year period. After that first decade, the winner will also receive $200,000 per year.

Rotberg plans to issue the index next year, and the foundation may award the prize as early as the end of 2007. Depending on the qualifications of candidates, an award may not be distributed every year.

Institute of Politics (IOP) Fellow George E. Moose, a former U.S. diplomat in the European Office of the United Nations, questioned the prize’s effectiveness even as he supported Ibrahim’s intentions.

Moose, who leads an IOP study group called “Africa in the Multilateral System,” questioned the merit of providing heads of states with a safety net to fall on after they retire and thus prevent corruption.

“First, nothing is ever black and white, so how can the candidates be accurately judged?” he said. “And who is to judge them? Second, there are always mediocre leaders with some bad records who know they are not qualified to receive the prize. So, what is the incentive for them?”

Lamont University professor emeritus Amartya K. Sen—the famed Nobel laureate—commended the award, according to a quote by the professor featured on the foundation’s Web site.

“I also hope that it will lead to constructive discussions across Africa on the demands of governance and precisely how it can contribute to a better and more secure life for all,” Sen said, according to the Web site.