Afrobarometer

The Afrobarometer is a research project that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in sub-Saharan Africa.^[1][2] It is carried out through a partnership of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in South Africa, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD Ghana),^[3] Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IREEP) in Benin,^[4] Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Nairobi,^[5] the Democracy in Africa Research Unit in the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town^[6] and the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University.^[7][8]

Afrobarometer is a pan-African an independent, non-partisan research project that measures the social, political, and economic atmosphere through public attitude surveys. Afrobarometer surveys are conducted in more than 30 African countries and are repeated on a regular cycle. The Afrobarometer is carried on in Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.^[9]

Afrobarometer achieves this measurement through a series of face-to-face interviews with a random sample of either 1,200 or 2,400 people in each country.^[10] Because the instrument asks a standard set of questions, countries can be systematically compared. Trends in public attitudes are tracked over time. Results are shared with decision makers, policy advocates, civic educators, journalists, researchers, donors and investors, as well as average Africans who wish to become more informed and active citizens.^[11] As of October 19, 2006, Afrobarometer data and publications had been cited 216 times.^[12]

The project has conducted five main rounds of surveys, covering a total of 22 African countries, as well as a number of individual surveys.^[13]

• "Round 6" surveys began in March 2014 and will end in December 2015
• "Round 5" surveys took place in 35 countries between 2011 and September 2013.
• "Round 4"surveys took place in 20 countries between March 2008 and June 2009. Round 5 surveys began in October 2011.
• "Round 3" surveys were conducted in 18 countries from March 2005 through February 2006.
• "Round 2" surveys were conducted from May 2002 through October 2003 in 16 countries. (Zimbabwe survey was carried out in April and May 2004).
• During "Round I", from July 1999 through June 2001, Afrobarometer surveys were conducted in 12 countries
• "Predecessor surveys" in 1993 in Zambia and 1994 in South Africa carried out by the Institute for Democracy in Africa (one of the founding institutions of Afrobarometer).

Afrobarometer was founded by Professor Robert Mattes of the University of Cape Town, Professor Michael Bratton of Michigan State University and Professor Emanuel Gyimah-Boadi of the University of Ghana. Mattes is now director of the Democracy in Africa Unit and senior advisor at Afrobarometer, Bratton is a former director of Afrobarometer and now senior advisor and Gyimah-Boadi is the current executive director of Afrobarometer ^[14]

The Afrobarometer currently covers twenty one survey topics: Conflict and crime, Democracy, Elections, Gender Equality, Governance, Identity, Macroeconomics and Markets, Political Participation, Poverty, Public Services, Social Capital, Tolerance, Access to Justice, Citizenship, China, Energy Supply, and Pan-Africanism/Regionalism.^[15]

See also

• Economy of Africa
• Eurobarometer
• Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
• Latin American Public Opinion Project
• Latinobarómetro
• World Values Survey

References

External links

• Afrobarometer homepage
• Ghana CDD homepage
• Institute for Justice and Reconciliation homepage
• IDASA homepage
• MSU Department of Political Science homepage
• IREEP homepage
• DARU homepage