Ghana is the second most peaceful country in Africa according to the 2021 Global Peace Index report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
The IEP describes itself as an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
Ghana only ranks behind Mauritius in Africa on the index of peace, according to the IEP report.
Interestingly, the report is coming at a time when most Ghanaians feel there is a breakdown in security and safety in the country, with armed robbery, kidnappings and what appears to be growing culture of hired assassinations dominating the news.
To their credit, however, the IEP reports that globally, peace is deteriorating.
Globally, Ghana is ranked 38th in the world out of the 163 countries reviewed. The country scored 1.715 which represents a two-point move upwards from the previous Global Peace Index report.
In Africa, Mauritius is ranked as the most peaceful country followed by Ghana with Botswana placing third. Meanwhile, Mauritius is ranked 28th most peaceful country in the world while Botswana is ranked 41st on the Global Peace Index.
Iceland is ranked the most peaceful country in the world with a score of 1.1. New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, and Slovenia are ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Meanwhile, the five least peaceful countries in the world, according to the 2021 Global Peace Index are; Iraq (ranked 159th), South Sudan (ranked 160th), Syria (ranked 161st) Yemen (ranked 162nd) and Afghanistan (at the bottom ranking 163rd)
The 2021 Global Index report is the 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.
The report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.
The GPI covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarization.
IEP achieves its goals by developing new conceptual frameworks to define peacefulness; providing metrics for measuring peace; and uncovering the relationships between business, peace and prosperity as well as promoting a better understanding of the cultural, economic and political factors that create peace.
IEP is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in New York, The Hague, Mexico City, Brussels and Harare. It works with a wide range of partners internationally and collaborates with intergovernmental organizations on measuring and communicating the economic value of peace.