Africa - Organised Crime Index

About the Index

The ENACT Organised Crime Index is a multi-dimensional tool that measures both the level of countries’ criminality and their resilience to organised crime.

The objective of the Index is to provide guidance to policymakers and continental regional bodies to prioritise their interventions on the basis of a holistic assessment of where vulnerabilities lie, and provide them with the means to measure the efficacy of their interventions. Developed over a two-year period, the Index draws from both quantitative and qualitative sources, and is underpinned by hundreds of expert assessments. The ENACT programme aims to encourage international and regional communities to move away from a solely criminal-justice-led response to organised crime, and towards a more comprehensive package of policies that can help mitigate the impact of organised crime, build local resilience and limit incentives for market participants. For more information about ENACT, visit enactafrica.org.

About ENACT

The European Union (EU) has placed security in Africa at the forefront of its international agenda, notably though its Pan-African Programme – the first programme of its kind to centre on development and cooperation, and covering Africa as a whole. One project under the Pan-African Programme is ENACT: Enhancing Africa’s capacity to respond more effectively to transnational organised crime. ENACT works to mitigate the impact of transnational organised crime (TOC) in Africa on development, governance, security and the rule of law. It achieves this in two ways: firstly, by building knowledge and offering evidence-based analysis of TOC in Africa, which will inform policy and enhance cooperation at the regional and continental level. Secondly, ENACT builds skills and capacity among key African stakeholders to better respond to transnational organised crime and mitigate its impact.

Index scores

Structure

The Index measures criminality and resilience for each country on a scale of 1 to 10. Countries’ criminality scores are made up of the average scores of fifteen criminal markets and five criminal actor types. Criminal market scores consider the scope, scale, value and reach (i.e. non-monetary impact) of each illicit economy. Criminal actor scores consider the structure, control and influence of each criminal actor type. The higher the criminality score a country has, the more severe its criminality conditions are.

Resilience scores are created by taking the average of 12 resilience indicators. These indicators represent a range of areas from which organised-crime response measures are developed – from politics and criminal justice, to economics and social fields. Unlike criminality, the higher the resilience score a country has, the more effective its response measures are to organised crime.

All Index scores have gone through extensive rounds of review and verification by experts on organised crime and by geographic experts, to ensure these numbers make sense in the real-world context in order to offer users the means to develop informed policies to counter organised crime.

Africa overall score for

Criminality

5.350.10

Sort and compare

More about the Rankings

While organised crime and responses differ from country to country, organised crime is nevertheless a global problem. Under both the criminality and resilience components of the Index, countries are ranked based on their scores in order to offer users the option for comparative analysis across the African continent. Above all, country rankings are meant to start a conversation among policymakers and regional bodies, encouraging them to delve deeper into how and why organised crime affects their respective countries, and learn from one another in order to develop effective resilience strategies.

Country with highest Criminality score

Democratic Republic of the Congo

7.470.12

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Criminality

7.47

Criminal markets

6.33

Criminal actors

8.60

Resilience

2.21

Country with lowest Criminality score

São Tomé and Príncipe

1.800.10

São Tomé and Príncipe

Criminality

1.80

Criminal markets

1.90

Criminal actors

1.70

Resilience

4.79

Country with highest Resilience score

Cabo Verde

6.54-0.04

Cabo Verde

Criminality

4.08

Criminal markets

3.57

Criminal actors

4.60

Resilience

6.54

Country with lowest Resilience score

Libya

1.880.33

Libya

Criminality

7.05

Criminal markets

6.70

Criminal actors

7.40

Resilience

1.88

Region with highest Criminality score

East Africa

6.020.14

East Africa

Criminality

6.02

Criminal markets

5.69

Criminal actors

6.34

Resilience

3.33

Region with lowest Criminality score

Southern Africa

4.880.05

Southern Africa

Criminality

4.88

Criminal markets

4.65

Criminal actors

5.12

Resilience

4.23

Region with highest Resilience score

Southern Africa

4.230.01

Southern Africa

Criminality

4.88

Criminal markets

4.65

Criminal actors

5.12

Resilience

4.23

Region with lowest Resilience score

Central Africa

3.16-0.07

Central Africa

Criminality

5.16

Criminal markets

4.76

Criminal actors

5.56

Resilience

3.16

Country Profiles

Detailed data about the 54 African countries

In addition to the scores and rankings, the Organised Crime Index website allows users to explore country profiles that explain the context behind each country’s scores. Country profiles outline scores for each component (i.e. criminality and resilience), subcomponent (i.e. criminal markets and criminal actors) and indicators. The country profiles also provide background information on each specific country context, and highlight key trends based on expert assessments.

Pyramid height

The criminal actors score is represented by the Pyramid height on a scale ranging from 1 to 10.

Pyramid width

The criminal markets score is represented by the Pyramid base size on a scale ranging from 1 to 10.

Panel height

The resilience score is represented by the Panel height which can be identified by the side of the Panel.

Data Explorer

Make your own comparisons

The Organised Crime Index offers a holistic framework of a country’s overall relationship to organised crime. At the same time, its subcomponents and indicators allow users to disaggregate such information and determine correlations with various impact areas in any given country and/or region. Policymakers and other users are able to compare data geographically, substantively and, with future iterations of the Index, temporally, so that they can identify key trends.

Made by people

Acknowledgments

The ENACT Organised Crime Index was developed by a core team at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime: Rumbi Matamba, Ioana Vasi, Raouf Farrah, Laura Adal, Kosyo Ivanov, Ebru Erkan, Chiara Gentili, Tuesday Reitano and Mark Shaw.

The Index team is grateful for all the work done by the GI-TOC Publications and Communication team and Kristina Davidson in editing the Index. Thank you to Café.art.br for sponsoring the Index and supporting the development of the tool. Credit to the Index's Publications team, Claudio Landi and Café.art.br for the design, visualisation and website development and updates.

In the process of developing the fourth and final iteration of the tool, the team drew on the support and expertise of around 160 people and would like to express their sincere gratitude to colleagues, experts, reviewers and research assistants for their tireless efforts to expand on all the previous editions of the Index to build a comprehensive and informative knowledge-sharing tool. Over a two-year period, experiences and informed opinions were exchanged, and lessons learned in order to capture data and information amid a unique set of global circumstances in 2024. It is with great hope that the tool allows for greater buy-in and collaboration in the future to build a larger evidence base from which stakeholders may draw in order to develop effective responses and ultimately successfully combat organised crime both in Africa and beyond.

Final opinions, findings and conclusions do not necessarily constitute or imply expert endorsements, nor do they necessarily represent their respective institutions.

Technical reference group

David Hammond
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Dr. Fiona M Underwood
Independent Statistical Researcher/Consultant
Georgios Antonopoulos
Northumbria University, Newcastle
Jan Hofmeyr
Afrobarometer
Jeremy McDermott
InSight Crime
Jonathan D Moyer, PhD
Director, Frederick S Pardee Center for International Futures
Karl Lallerstedt
Senior Fellow, GI-TOC
Dr. Leo S.F. Lin
Director, Institute for Asian Crime and Security
Dr. Michael Levi
Professor of Criminology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Dr. Patricio R Estévez-Soto
Lecturer in Security and Crime Science, University College London
Professor Marc Tassé
University of Ottawa, (School of Management and Law School)
Robin Cartwright
Senior Fellow, GI-TOC
Sara Batmanglich
-
Dr. Sharon Ingrid Kwok
Lecturer, Criminology, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University
Yannick Vuylsteke
Former Head of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance

Experts

Abdiaziz Mahmoud Ismail
Independent Consultant
Dr. Adam Alhassan Adamu Bonaa
-
Akizi Egnim Akala
Independent Consultant; Expert in conflict, peace and security
Dr Alexandre Bish
Head of Research Innovation: North Africa and the Sahel Observatory, GI-TOC
Alice Fereday
Senior Analyst, GI-TOC
Ana Lúcia Sá
-
Prof. Anja Osei
Professor of Comparative Political Science with a special focus on Africa, Freie Universität Berlin
Assis Malaquias
-
Dr. Dany Franck A. Tiwa
Executive Director, African Centre for Crime and Security Studies (ACCSS)
Associate Professor Derica Lambrechts
Stellenbosch University
Fabrice A. Kodjo Ebeh, Ph.D
International Expert - Anti-corruption / AML / Illicit Financial Flows
Emadeddin Badi
Senior Fellow, GI-TOC
Prof. Etannibi E. Alemika
-
Eugénio Almeida Ph.D
-
Fiona Mangan
-
Brig. General (rtd) Gaseikanngwe Peke
Independent Consultant
Mr. Georges Nicette
Senior Lecturer (Social work/Sociology), Health and Social Care Department, University Of Seychelles (UNISEY)
Dr. Gideon Ofosu-Peasah
Consultant, GI-TOC
Golden Matonga
-
Dr Hassan Ould Moctar
Independent Scholar and Consultant
Hayatte Abdou
Journaliste / Rédactrice en Chef de National Magazine Comores
Ivan Rush Mugisha
Freelance Journalist: AFP, The Africa Report, The East African
Jackson P. Miller, MPP
Harvard Kennedy School
Jason Eligh
Senior Expert, GI-TOC
Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane
Senior Expert, GI-TOC
Johann van Loggerenberg
Consultant: Organised Crime, Tax, Customs, Excise, General Legal Advisor, Lifestyle Audit Advisor, Lecturer (post graduate studies), Author, Journalist, Conflict Negotiator and Mediator, Researcher and Analyst
John Kamma
Founder and Executive Director, Citizens Bureau for Development and Productivity
Jonathan R Beloff
Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London
Jonathan Rozen
Independent Researcher
Julia Stanyard
Senior Analyst, GI-TOC
Kiakisiki Q. Do Nascimento
-
Koalaga Oumarou Paul
-
AFANDE Kokou Dela
Independent Worker
Kristof Titeca
Professor in Development Studies, Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp
Kwesi Aning
Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, Accra, Ghana
Luca Raineri
Assistant Professor - Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa (Italy)
Lucas Olo Fernandes
Lawyer, Equatorial Guinean Commission of Jurists
Lucy Poni Modi Igga
-
Lyes Tagziria
Senior Analyst, GI-TOC
Marcena Hunter
Director of Extractives, GI-TOC
Martin Plaut
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies and King’s College, University of London
Dr. Matt Herbert
Head of Research: North Africa and the Sahel, GI-TOC
Dr. Max Gallien
Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
Michael McLaggan
Analyst, GI-TOC
Muazu Umaru 
Director, Policy and Research, GIABA, Dakar, Senegal
Dr. Navi Ramgolam
Maritime Security Expert
Nonduduzo Kunene
Senior Journalist, Times of Eswatini
Dr Reginas Ndayiragije
Research Associate, IOB, University of Antwerpen
RANDRIANARISOA Riana Raymonde
Investigative Journalist / Independent Consultant / Editor in Chief, Gazety Taratra
Rikkert Reijnen
Wildlife Crime Expert, Independent Consultant
Rundong Ning
-
Sally Bilaly SOW
Independent Journalist and Consultant
Dr Samuel Ayele Bekalo
-
Sam Ratner
Policy Director, Win Without War
Selma El-Obeidi
Independent Researcher
Sherif Mohyeldeen
Senior MENA Analyst and Member of the Global CSO Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism
Mwachofi Singo
-
Telita Snyckers Norgaard
Independent tax and customs optimization consultant
Thierry Vircoulon
Associate Researcher, French Institute for International Affairs
Timo Shihepo
Media Practitioner / Researcher
Tomas Maule
-
Tomslin Samme-Nlar
Independent Researcher
Vel Moonien
-