Source: All Africa. Com
Violence is expensive. Countries not only pay a lot of money to build, supply and maintain military and police forces, but also to investigate and punish criminal activity. Worldwide, at least $9 trillion is spent each year in response to violence and the threat of violence. What would happen if countries could reduce violence and use the savings to improve things like education, the rule of law and coexistence?
For six years, the Australian-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) not only has been asking that question, but also collecting hard data proving the economic and social benefits of peace, and steps that every country can take to end the vicious cycle of having to divert resources from beneficial programs to counter chronic violence and instability.
IEP’s annual Global Peace Index measures peace in 158 countries using 23 indicators, including political terror, internal conflicts, crime, incarceration rates, relations with neighbors, military expenditures and weapons exports. The index is able to show what the most peaceful countries, Iceland and Denmark, have in common, and the same for war-torn Somalia and Afghanistan, which were ranked the least peaceful in the 2012 report.
Categories: Africa