According to the ranking titled, ‘World’s Most Peaceful Country 2023 Global Peace Index’, Uganda is listed at position 124, six slots ahead of United States and higher than South Africa and India.
The ranking, which was compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), covered over 163 independent states which have 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.
“The ranking is based on 23 indicators grouped into three criteria (societal safety and security; extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and degree of militarization) shows 84 countries recording improvement and 79 showing deterioration,” the description reads in part.
Iceland retained the 1st position (for the 6th year in a row) as the most peaceful country in the world followed by Denmark in 2nd position, Ireland in 3rd, New zealand in 4th, Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Slovenia, Japan and Switzerland in that order.
According to the description, Icelanders can sleep well at night, they live in the most peaceful nation in the world. With no standing army, navy or air force and the smallest population of any NATO member state (about 365,000 people), Iceland also enjoys record-low crime rates, an enviable education and welfare system, and ranks among the best nations in terms of jobs and earnings and subjective sense of wellbeing.
The US, on the other hand, is listed at position 131, 6 slots below Uganda. For the sixth year in a row, Afghanistan emerged as the least peaceful country in world followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The United States has suffered a dramatic fall since 2015 across several metrics of the peace index, with civil unrest being a primary driver of the overall decline. This trend has been affected by gun violence for years with over 40,167 lives already claimed in 2023 alone.
In Africa Botswana tops the list at position 42 followed by Sierra Leone at 47, Ghana at 51, Senegal 52, Madagascar at 55, Gambia 59, and Zambia at 63. In East Africa, Rwanda is the most peaceful country at 88 followed by Tanzania at 91, Kenya at 117, Burundi at 128, South Africa at 130, Somalia at 156, DRC at 159, and South Sudan at 160.
Uganda, on the other hand, has dealt with terror activities primarily from Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and supported peace initiatives elsewhere. Internally, recorded cases of violence and muggings in Uganda have also steadily reduced.
“Overall the level of global peacefulness decreased this year by 0.42% according to IEP researchers. That might not seem like much, yet it is worth noting that it is the 13th time in the past 15 years that the average has declined, for an overall reduction of 5% since the annual Global Peace Index was first published in 2008,” added Global Finance.
The listing further indicated that the financial impact of violence is $17.5 trillion in purchasing-power-parity (PPP) terms, or 12.9% of total global GDP.
The report also shows that since 2008 the number of refugees and internally displaced persons has rocketed to 85 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
“It should come as no surprise that political instability and unresolved internal conflicts are major factors undermining global peacefulness” the report adds.
Ukraine recorded the largest deterioration in the index, falling 14 places to the 157th spot. The report estimates that the war cost Ukraine $449 billion, or 64% of its GDP. The human cost is also staggering: 65% of Ukrainian men between the age of 20 and 24 have fled the country or died in the conflict. Haiti, Mali and Israel were the other nations with the sharpest declines in this year’s peacefulness index.
Another worrying trend is that conflicts are becoming more internationalized: 91 countries are now involved in external conflicts in some form—the respective figure from the 2008 index was just 33. Terrorism also decreased gradually since 2015, dropping by over 12 per cent.