In sub-Saharan Africa, a region diseased by conflict and lack of accountability, an unlikely tool hopes to bring the emancipation that decades of political turmoil have failed to. Late last month, a new index of governance created by a team of scholars from Harvard University was launched by the Mo Ibrahim foundation. In the words of its founder Mo Ibrahim, “The Ibrahim Index is a tool to hold governments to account and frame debate on how we are governed.” The index is an aggregate of five indicators: safety & security, rule of law, human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development, which are further divided into 15 sub-categories and 58 smaller categories. Although there exist more than 100 indices of governance, this index is based on data underlying objective standards, while similar indices such as the Worldwide governance indicators (World Bank) and African Governance Report 2005 (UN Economic Commission for Africa) are based on perceptual data, which makes them less reliable. This new tool will not only serve people looking to hold their governments accountable but also small and medium foreign investors looking for opportunities in a vast, untapped market.