The world’s largest individual prize has no winner for the fourth time in the last five years.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced yesterday there was no winner for the 2013 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, the second year in a row the prize will have no winner. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which awards the prize, said that it would not lower the standard by which the prize was awarded.
The award, which “highlights exceptional role models for the continent” is given by the foundation to a democratically elected African head of state or government who demonstrated exceptional leadership, finished his term, and left office within the last three years. The award pays out $5 million over ten years and afterward pays $200,000 annually for life. An additional $200,000 is available for a decade for causes the winner supports.
Former Irish president Mary Robinson, who sits on the foundation’s board, said that the organization never expected to award the prize every year.
The last winner was Cape Verde’s ex-president Pedro Pires, who won in 2011. It was only the third win since Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born British telecommunications mogul, established the prize in 2007. Both former South African president Nelson Mandela and former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu have won special awards from the foundation.