In Africa Botswana is followed by Namibia 51, South Africa 53, Ghana 55 and Tunisia 58. Botswana has also emerged among countries which are considered the most peaceful in the world. The world – especially the Greater Middle East – has become less peaceful than it was five years ago, according to the 2013 edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) released in Washington DC, Tuesday, by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). Consistent with that trend, the Index also found that global peacefulness declined over the past year, chiefly due to the intensifying civil war in Syria; the rising number of homicides, especially in Mexico, Central America, and several sub-Saharan African countries; and increased military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in many nations. News: Botswana Ranked Best Governed Country in Africa The 2013 Global Peace Index (GIP) places Botswana at 32 out of 162 countries, putting her above half of the European region countries measured. These include five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: United Kingdom (44), France (53), United States of America (99), China (101) and Russia (155). In Africa, Botswana is placed behind Mauritius (21), but is ahead of Namibia (46), Zambia (48) and Lesotho (49), South Africa (121) and Zimbabwe (149). Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia remain the world’s least peaceful countries. At the other end, Iceland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada and Japan are the world’s leading peaceful nations. Led by Iceland, Denmark and Austria, the Index found that Europe remained comfortably the world’s most peaceful region over the past year, while South Asia was the least peaceful, dragged down by Afghanistan, which ranked 162nd of the 162 countries covered by this year’s Index, and Pakistan, which claimed the 157th spot. But the Middle East also fell close to the bottom, due to the raging conflict in Syria (160), the uptick in sectarian violence in Iraq (159), continuing conflict in Sudan (157) and Yemen (152). Israel (150) also brought down the region, due its short war with Hamas in November and the rise in its military spending that followed. This year’s Index also estimated that the impact of violence – as assessed in major part by the costs, such as budgets for defence and internal security — on the global economy in 2012 came to at least 9.5 trillion dollars, or 11 percent of the gross world product — nearly double the value of the world’s total food production. “Were the world to reduce its expenditure on violence by approximately 50 percent,” according to the Index, “it could repay the debt of the developing world (4.076 billion dollars), provide enough money for the European stability mechanism (900 billion dollars) and fund the additional amount required to achieve the annual cost of the Millennium Development Goals (60 billion dollars).” And it found a correlation between those countries hardest hit by the 2008 global financial crisis and a decline in their peacefulness compared to those countries that were not as badly affected. “Cuts to public services and social protection, alongside increasing unemployment, has led to increases in violent demonstrations, violent crime, and perceptions of criminality in many countries,” according to the 101-page report...
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:20:02 +0000
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