Zimbabwe drops six places on Global Peace Index
Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwe has dropped six places on the Global Peace Index (GPI) rankings to 132 out of 163 countries for 2019 due to government’s increased use of its security apparatus, a new report shows.
According to the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2019 report, from the Australian global think tank "The Institute for Economics & Peace", the worst deterioration globally took place in Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Brazil in that order.
“Zimbabwe’s overall score deteriorated by 5.3 percent in 2019, marking the fourth successive year of deterioration in peacefulness," reads part of the GPI 2019 report.
The country deteriorated in all three domains, most especially in the Ongoing Conflict domain. Political instability and violent demonstrations deteriorated in 2019, following widespread strikes and protests in response to the sharp rise in fuel prices.
The GPI 2019 report found that in sub-Saharan Africa, the results were mixed.
Twenty-seven of the region’s 44 countries deteriorated in peacefulness, leading to a weakening of all three domains of the GPI, while 12 of the region’s 23 indicators improved and eight deteriorated.
The GPI found that the five worst deteriorations occurred in Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Togo, Sierra Leone and Namibia in that order.
The methodology used for the GPI 2019 report looked at three areas or domains, namely, ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security and militarisation.
Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, investigates the extent to which countries are involved in internal and external conflicts, as well as their role and duration of involvement in conflicts.
The second domain evaluates the level of harmony or discord within a nation; ten indicators broadly assess what might be described as Societal Safety and Security, reads part of the GPI 2019 report.
Seven further indicators are related to a country’s militarisation —reflecting the link between a country’s level of military build-up and access to weapons and its level of peacefulness, both domestically and internationally.
-0- PANA TZ/MA 11Aug2019
