On Tuesday, Transparency International (TI) released their 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), revealing that many sub-Saharan African countries remain among the most corrupt world-wide.

The annually-released index ranks how corrupt governments are perceived to be, according to international institutions such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The 2009 CPI ranked 180 countries on perceived levels of domestic public sector corruption based on up to 13 independent surveys per country. The countries are ranked on a scale of 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

Somalia was ranked as the most corrupt nation in the index, followed by other conflict-ridden and fragile states, such as Sudan and Chad. The vast majority of sub-Saharan African countries ranked in the bottom of the index, demonstrating that much of the region is still plagued by poor governance and corrupt practices.

Patrick Berg, program coordinator for TI, explained the link between poverty and corruption: “Where you find poverty, corruption usually hits people the hardest,” he said. However, the news is not all bad: Berg said that countries who have made consistent efforts to improve their governance, such as Botswana, Mauritius and Cape Verde, have improved their rankings.

Huguette Labelle, chair of TI maintains that countries at the bottom of the index should not be left out of development efforts. The poor rankings indicate, rather, that there is a need to strengthen country institutions. “Stemming corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well performing judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil society,” said Labelle. “The international community must find efficient ways to help war-torn countries to develop and sustain their own institutions.”

Check out this interactive map to see how countries scored in this year’s CPI.