Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
Isaiah Morewagae
4 November 2009
Botswana is the most peaceful country in southern Africa and is ahead of its former coloniser, the United Kingdom, in terms of universal peace points.
Botswana is at 34th position with 1.643 points, followed by the United Kingdom at 35th position with 1.647.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation says Botswana is above all African countries. Malawi is second in Africa at 47th position with 1.711 points.
The least four peaceful countries in the world are Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, in that order.
But at 34th position globally, that makes Botswana the most peaceful country only in Africa, and the continent's only recipient of the Global Peace Index Award at this year's Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations in Washington D.C that began on Sunday and ended yesterday.
Botswana and Malawi were the only two countries in southern Africa chosen to receive the award. A press statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said:
"The institute collates and calculates information on 144 nations on an annual basis and ranks them from the most peaceful to the least peaceful nations. It also undertakes research and education on the relationship between economic development, business and peace."
The GPI website says the results for 2009 suggest that the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year, which appears to reflect the intensification of violent conflict in some countries and the effects of both the rapidly rising food and fuel prices early in 2008 and the dramatic global economic downturn in the final quarter of the year.
Rapidly rising unemployment, pay freezes and falls in the value of house prices, savings and pensions are causing popular resentment in many countries, with political repercussions that have been registered by the GPI through various indicators measuring safety and security in society.
This is the third edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). It has been expanded from 140 to rank 144 independent states and updated with the latest available figures and information for 2007-2008. The index is composed of 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from respected sources which combine internal and external factors ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human rights.
"These indicators were selected by an international panel of experts including academics and leaders of peace institutions," the GPI says.
The GPI has been tested against a range of potential "drivers" or potential determinants of peace, including levels of democracy and transparency, education and material wellbeing.
The GPI brings a snapshot of relative peacefulness among nations while continuing to contribute to an understanding of what factors helps create or sustain more peaceful societies.
Steve Killelea, an Australian international technology entrepreneur and philanthropist, founded the GPI. It forms part of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a new global think-tank dedicated to the research and education of the relationship between economic development, business and peace. The GPI is collated and calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
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