The IDI Rating Methodology
The International Development Index (IDI) is Diaspora Drop's data-driven rating of how effectively each African basketball federation is building the infrastructure, pipeline, and results that produce elite talent. This page explains exactly how the number is built.
At a glance
What the IDI measures
The IDI is not a power ranking of the national team alone. It is an infrastructure index: it rewards federations that not only win, but that consistently qualify for competitions across age levels, that integrate young players into senior squads, and that produce individuals recognised among the best at each event.
A federation that wins AfroBasket with an aging squad scores well on placement but earns no youth-contribution points. A federation that reaches the U18 AfroBasket quarterfinals with four U23-eligible prospects contributing at the senior level signals a deeper, more sustainable pipeline. The IDI is designed to surface the latter.
Competitions & event weights
Every result in the window is multiplied by an event weight. The rarer and more demanding the stage, the higher the weight.
| Competition type | Weight | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| World senior / Olympics | 1.5 | FIBA World Cup, Olympics |
| Continental senior | 1.0 | AfroBasket, AfroCan |
| World youth | 1.0 | U17 & U19 World Cup |
| Continental youth | 0.75 | U16 & U18 AfroBasket |
| Qualifying competition | 0.5 | World Cup, AfroBasket & zonal qualifiers |
How points are earned
A country's raw score is the sum of these four components across every event it appeared in during the window.
From raw score to letter grade
Raw scores are normalized so the top-rated federation in the window scores 100, and every other federation is expressed as a percentage of that leader. That normalized 0-100 figure maps to a letter grade:
Normalizing to the leader keeps the scale comparable across eras even as the absolute depth of African basketball grows. A "B+" today reflects the same relative standing it did five years ago.
Refresh cadence & data integrity
- Refreshed every January for the rolling previous five calendar years, so the index always reflects the most recent complete cycle.
- Placements are sourced from official FIBA result pages; squads and U23 birth dates are cross-checked against Wikipedia squad lists and Diaspora Drop's own DOB audit batches.
- Qualifying events use full verified participant lists (e.g. 28 teams for the U16 AfroBasket qualifiers, 25 for U18), so reaching the stage itself is recognised.
- A country with no verified results in the window is rated NR (Not Rated) rather than scored zero.
The IDI rankings at a glance
Every rated African federation, ranked by normalized IDI score. Bar length shows the score (0–100, where 100 is the leading federation in the window); color follows the same green-to-red pipeline spectrum used across Diaspora Drop. Country names are blinded — unlock Platinum to see which federation sits where.
- 1Federation 1A+ · 100
- 2Federation 2A+ · 91
- 3Federation 3A · 85
- 4Federation 4A · 82
- 5Federation 5A · 82
- 6Federation 6C+ · 58
- 7Federation 7C+ · 55
- 8Federation 8C · 48
- 9Federation 9D+ · 38
- 10Federation 10D+ · 37
- 11Federation 11D+ · 35
- 12Federation 12D+ · 34
- 13Federation 13D+ · 30
- 14Federation 14D · 30
- 15Federation 15D · 26
- 16Federation 16D · 24
- 17Federation 17D- · 16
- 18Federation 18D- · 12
- 19Federation 19D- · 12
- 20Federation 20D- · 11
- 21Federation 21D- · 10
- 22Federation 22D- · 8
- 23Federation 23D- · 8
- 24Federation 24D- · 6
- 25Federation 25D- · 6
- 26Federation 26D- · 5
- 27Federation 27D- · 5
- 28Federation 28D- · 4
- 29Federation 29D- · 4
- 30Federation 30D- · 2
- 31Federation 31D- · 2
- 32Federation 32D- · 2
- 33Federation 33D- · 2
- 34Federation 34D- · 2
- 35Federation 35D- · 1
- 36Federation 36D- · 1
- 37Federation 37D- · 1
- 38Federation 38D- · 1
- 39Federation 39D- · 1
- 40Federation 40D- · 1
- 41Federation 41D- · 1
- 42Federation 42D- · 1
- 43Federation 43D- · 1
The full ranking — with every federation named — is unlocked for Diaspora Drop Platinum members. The distribution above is shown so you can see how African basketball pipelines spread from elite to developing.
See every country's IDI Rating
The full letter grade for each federation, updated each January, is available to Diaspora Drop Platinum subscribers on every country page.
Unlock with Platinum