Ghana Makes Africa’s Civic-Space Top 10 Despite Concerns Over Media and Public Freedoms

• Ghana Makes Africa’s Civic-Space Top 10 Despite Concerns Over Media and Public Freedoms

Ghana ranks among the 10 African countries with the strongest civic space, but its 60 out of 100 score still places it in the “obstructed” category, highlighting the gap between being one of the continent’s stronger performers and providing citizens with genuinely open conditions for expression, association and peaceful assembly.

The latest CIVICUS Monitor assessment places Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe jointly at the top with scores of 88, making them the only countries in Africa south of the Sahara classified as having “open” civic space.

They are followed by Namibia and Seychelles on 80, Mauritius on 77, Botswana on 72, while Ghana, Lesotho and South Africa each score 60. Comoros, with 56, completes the continent’s top 10 under the latest assessment.

The rankings matter because civic space measures something broader than electoral democracy.

It considers whether individuals, journalists, businesses, campaigners and civil society organisations can criticise government, organise, assemble peacefully and participate in public affairs without unreasonable interference or intimidation.

For investors, those conditions can also carry economic significance. Transparent institutions and the ability of businesses and communities to raise concerns can expose policy failures before they become more expensive and provide governments with feedback on large infrastructure, regulatory and investment decisions.

CIVICUS says 44 of 50 countries and territories in Africa south of the Sahara are rated obstructed, repressed or closed, while more than 80.00% of the population lives in countries where civic space is classified as repressed or closed.

That means even several countries appearing near the top of the African ranking fall short of the organisation’s highest standard.

Namibia and Seychelles, for instance, both score 80 but remain categorised as “narrowed”, while Mauritius and Botswana also fall into that category. Ghana, Lesotho and South Africa sit another level lower as “obstructed”.

The distinction is important for Ghana. The country has historically enjoyed a reputation as one of West Africa’s more stable democracies, with competitive elections, active civil society and a diverse media environment.

But CIVICUS currently scores Ghana at 60 and classifies its civic space as obstructed. Its Africa assessment has pointed to concerns over media freedom, including attacks on journalists and the use of legal provisions against journalists.

That makes Ghana’s top-10 position less a reason for complacency than a reminder of how restrictive civic conditions remain across much of the continent.

A country can compare favourably with regional peers while still having substantial room to strengthen institutions protecting expression, protest, journalism and civic participation.

Senegal, Gabon and Mauritania recorded improvements in the latest annual assessment, demonstrating that ratings can respond to political reforms and changes in the environment for civil society.

Investors typically assess market size, taxes, political stability and access to resources, but institutional predictability also affects investment decisions. A society in which businesses, journalists and communities can scrutinise government decisions may provide earlier warning of corruption, regulatory failures or public opposition to major projects.

Conversely, restricting civic participation can create hidden risks. Communities unable to raise legitimate grievances around mining, land acquisition, infrastructure or environmental impacts may not become less dissatisfied simply because public criticism is constrained. Such concerns can instead accumulate until they become legal, political or operational problems.

The CIVICUS methodology draws on information gathered from country-focused civil society organisations, regional research teams, international human-rights indices and the organisation’s own specialists. Countries are then placed into five categories open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.

The African leaders under the current scores are therefore:

For Ghana, the message contained in the ranking is therefore mixed.

The country remains among Africa’s stronger environments for civic participation, but it is not classified as “open” or even “narrowed”.

And on a continent where only two countries currently meet CIVICUS’ open-space threshold, finishing in the top 10 says as much about the weakness of civic freedoms elsewhere as it does about the strength of Ghana’s own democratic environment.