When it comes to corruption rankings, Somalia typically appears among the worst affected. The logical conclusion from Corruption Perceptions Index is that no African country is worse than Somalia when it comes to security, good governance and provision of health services.

But this assessment may not be so simple. Not so, for instance, if you take into account the following facts: firstly, that Somalia is ahead of a whole host of African countries—namely Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR),Chad, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria—when it comes to the Sustainable Development Goal number 5, especially when looked at from indicator of the percentage of women in a country’s national parliament.

As for life expectancy (SDG 3), Somalia falls in the lowest life expectancy band but still ahead of Nigeria, Chad, Kenya, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire. Countries in highest life expectancy band are: Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya— four countries in North Africa.