Resilience at Risk: Defence Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa

‘Resilience at Risk: Defence Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa’ presents regional findings from the 2025 Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) across

Against a backdrop of rising defence expenditure, persistent insecurity, and growing demands on defence institutions, it examines corruption risks and institutional resilience across five key areas of defence governance: political oversight, financial management, personnel, military operations, and procurement.The findings reveal persistent governance challenges across the region. All countries assessed continue to face high, very high, or critical corruption risks in their defence sectors. Although some have strengthened their institutional controls since the last iteration of the GDI was produced in 2020, progress remains uneven.

The report calls for stronger parliamentary and audit oversight, including improving access to information and ensuring that oversight bodies have the capacity, expertise, and authority to effectively scrutinise defence decision-making. It also highlights the need for greater transparency in defence finances and procurement, particularly around secret spending, classification practices, and exceptional procedures. Finally, it emphasises the importance of integrating corruption risk management into military doctrine, planning, training, and contracting processes to strengthen accountability and operational effectiveness.