Ghana and South Africa were top-ranked in key governance measures in sub-Saharan Africa the World Bank said.

The aid agency's global governance report for 2006, released Tuesday, shows mixed progress of Ghana's performance in the six governance dimensions since 1996, however overall governance has improved and Ghana is doing a lot better that her peers. (Read Full report)

Ghana has improved its civil freedoms, government effectiveness and political stability, but the rule of law has declined and lags behind 2000 figures. The ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development has also fallen. Ghana also made extraordinary progress on corruption over the past decade

The survey moulds indicators such as political stability, democracy, business environment and corruption into an annual snapshot of how the world's 6.6 billion people are governed.

Summary for Ghana

• Voice & Accountability: After drops in 2002 and 2004, the last two years have seen an improvement in freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media

• Political Stability and Lack of Violence/Terrorism: Steady improvement in this category since 1996. Most Ghanaians see a very low likelihood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means.

• Government Effectiveness: After a drop in 2003 and 2004 to the 1990s level, 2006 saw Ghana lift itself back to its highest ranking ever in the quality of public services, civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures and the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies.

• Regulatory Quality: Ghana's 2006 ranking is still below that in 1996 in measures of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development.

• Rule of Law: 2006 has seen an improvement over the preceeding four years. However, Ghana is still not doing as good as in 2000 in measures the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, in particular the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the courts.

• Control of Corruption: Ghana made progress against corruption in 2003 over the 1990s, but lost some gains in the quality of business regulations in 2004-05. However, 2006 saw a slight improvement.

African countries making strides toward good governance include Kenya, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, but "other African countries still face enormous government and development challenges," a summary of the report said.

However, global efforts to cut corruption and improve government quality have made little progress in the last 10 years, despite bright spots in Africa and Eastern Europe.

The report shows several regions backsliding or stagnating since 2004 in the fight against graft, including East and South Asia, Latin America and even the rich nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The World Bank says companies and individuals pay an estimated 1 trillion dollars in bribes annually, hurting poor people and discouraging investment that otherwise might boost prosperity.

On the positive side, "there is a large number of countries that are showing that in 8-10 years it is possible to significantly improve governance," Kaufmann said.

Finland and Singapore won top honours in fighting corruption. Denmark also won consistently high marks for governance among rich nations, while former Soviet states Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia made dramatic gains in the past five years.

The World Bank, which lends some 23 billion dollars a year for aid projects, began highlighting corruption as a drain on development and investment in the 1990s.

The survey combines data from 33 publicly available sources to calculate worldwide governance indicators.