MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay leads in Latin America by far in the Good Government Index

Key LATAM highlights include Uruguay topping the region with an impressive rise from 33rd to 31st overall in 2024

The Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG) is launching the fourth edition of the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) this Wednesday, live from London with an event featuring Julia Gillard AC, Australia’s 27th Prime Minister. The performance Index shows Uruguay clearly rose in Latin America, on the “Leadership and Foresight, and Attractive Marketplace” pillars.

Latin American states threw up a mixed picture, showing a broad spectrum of performance in the region's governance. While some states are making steady progress, others reflect the impact of political and socio-economic crisis on overall state effectiveness. Uruguay (ranking 31st) and Chile (35th) both do well on a global scale, while other LATAM countries, like Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, fell within the middle to lower ranges of the index. Venezuela again takes the bottom spot of the entire CGGI. The 2024 CGGI has expanded and now includes Costa Rica, in at 43rd and Paraguay which debuts in 76th place.

Key LATAM highlights include Uruguay topping the region with an impressive rise from 33rd to 31st overall in 2024. This was driven by substantial progress in the 'Leadership and Foresight' pillar where Uruguay shot up from 21st to 7th. Other notable increases included a rise in the index pillar 'Attractive Marketplace', jumping 8 places to 21st and solidifying Uruguay as an economically dynamic nation. If these trends continue, Uruguay is well-placed well to break into the top 30 in 2025.

Latin American Rankings

The 2024 CGGI Top Ten Countries

 
Argentina's performance has deteriorated amidst the long-term economic crisis that has been inherited by President Milei. In 2024, Argentina has dropped 9 places to 77th place on the overall rankings, and its rank in the 'Leadership and Foresight' pillar has nosedived 39 places to 101st. Argentina is struggling to govern its economy and financial institutions effectively, which shows up in its rankings dipping to the bottom 10 in the index pillars for 'Attractive Marketplace' and 'Financial Stewardship'.

The 2024 CGGI rankings also captured some significant movements in government performance that reinforce existing global trends – most worryingly for those working in the development space, that the performance gap, or ‘governance gap’, between the better performing states and those which are weaker, appears to be widening. Put simply, countries that have improved the most were generally already performing well, while countries that declined the most were already not performing as well. Indicative of this trend, noteworthy moves up in this year’s rankings were the UAE (+6 places, to 14th) and Greece (+4 places to 41st), while in the bottom half of the rankings were some of the most pronounced fallers: Honduras (-13 places to 97th), Ethiopia (-12 places to 106th) and Türkiye (-12 places to 70th).

Standing out amongst this year’s moves in the rankings, the 2024 CGGI reveals a major slide in government effectiveness and capabilities in Russia, likely exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine and ongoing war. Russia fell 12 places in the overall rankings from 2023, with the slide most pronounced in the index ‘pillars’ for Financial Stewardship (-27 places); Robust Laws & Policies (-16 places); Global Influence & Reputation (-16 places); and Attractive Marketplace (-14 places).

Also of note this year, the addition of nine new countries takes the index’s coverage to over 90% of the world’s population. These new nations included high, mid, and lower performing states like Luxembourg (7th), Saudi Arabia (38th), and Bangladesh (91st), among others. The increased country coverage – in combination with analysis of data from 35 indicators across seven categories – makes the CGGI the most comprehensive comparative snapshot of government capabilities that is freely available to researchers and practitioners. By design, the CGGI serves as a comprehensive analytical tool for public sector leaders to improve government performance through clear, insightful data and actionable insights.

About the Chandler Good Government Index: The CGGI measures government capabilities and effectiveness of 113 countries – representing over 90% of the world’s population. The CGGI framework has been developed through extensive research, drawing on interviews with practitioners and experts on what capabilities and characteristics are most important for a government to perform well and deliver good outcomes for citizens and businesses. The 35 indicators are made up of more than 50 metrics. Importantly, the CGGI is constructed with a non-partisan and non-ideological worldview, and focuses on the capabilities that governments must develop so as to build stronger and more prosperous nations. This makes the index results more relevant to a wider range of countries, regardless of their income level, political system, and culture.

About the Chandler Institute of Governance: CIG is an international non-profit organisation, headquartered in Singapore. CIG is a partner to governments, supporting them in building strong nations for the next generation through training programmes, government projects and partnerships, and knowledge creation and sharing.

In the 2023 CGGI, Switzerland ranked 2; Germany 8; Ireland 9; New Zeeland 10; UK 11: US, 14: Canada 15 and Australia 16,...and Rwanda, 56.