I heard about it on the radio today while driving in Lusaka. I thought how cool and read it up. Zambia is the 51st safest country in the world! I think Zambia went up one position from last year.
On 7 June 2010 the Institute for Economics and Peace released its findings on the world’s most peaceful countries for 2010. The Global Peace Index (GPI) ranks 149 countries according to their ‘degree of peacefulness’. Each country is given a numerical score to determine its place in the rankings.
The Institute’s stated aim for the GPI is to “provide insight on how countries, businesses and international organizations can help the world move towards peace.” Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan continue to rank as the world’s least peaceful nations whereas New Zealand, followed in the rankings by Iceland and Japan, is rated the most peaceful. “Small, stable and democratic countries are consistently ranked highest,” the GPI’s accompanying report states. In fact there is little variation among the top twenty nations, whose 2010 GPIs range from New Zealand’s 1.188 to Hungary’s 1.495.
The Institute of Economics and Peace is an independent not-for-profit research institute based in Sydney, Australia. Its focus is on the value of peace to economic development and its relationship with commerce. “Peace is conducive to business and areas of minimal violence are attractive to business investors. At the same time, business can play a decisive role in building and strengthening global peace through job and wealth creation”, the Institute’s website www.economicsandpeace.org states.
To calculate the index, the Institute of Economics and Peace looks at 23 indicators grouped in three broad categories — ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society, and militarisation. Canada ranks at 14 on the GPI, United Kingdom 31 and the USA is listed at 85. Among large developing nations, China ranks 80 and and India 128.
Using a system of averages, the GPI report concludes that Western Europe is “markedly the most peaceful region”, followed by North America then Central and Eastern Europe. Asia Pacific ranks fourth most peaceful region, “but it exhibits wide variation,” including as it does top country New Zealand, Japan (3), Australia (19), and also North Korea (139), Pakistan (145) and Afghanistan (149).
According to the GPI report, the world’s least peaceful region is Sub-Saharan Africa. But Zambia, never having been involved in civil war, is doing its part to change this.
Posted by Jessica Brown Holness