Bangladesh 84th in global peace index

Bangladesh has been ranked the third most peaceful country in South Asia, faring better than India, Pakistan and Nepal in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2017.

Bangladesh is ranked 84, down a notch from last year, out of 163 countries with a global score of 2.035, according to the latest report published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The Sydney based think tank found that level of peace around the world improved slightly for the first time since the Syrian war began in 2011.

The report, however, said level of harmony deteriorated and terrorism records increased.

It said the world became 0.28 percent more peaceful than the previous year.

“The global level of peace has slightly improved this year by 0.28 percent, with 93 countries improving, while 68 countries deteriorated.”

Since 2008, the global level of peace deteriorated by 2.14 percent, with 80 countries improving while 83 deteriorated.

The IEP pointed out that there had been the largest deterioration in terrorism impact indicator, with 60 percent countries recording higher level of terrorism than around a decade ago.

“The terrorism impact indicator had the largest number of countries deteriorating, with 60 percent recording higher levels of terrorism in 2017 than in 2008. The number of countries experiencing record number of deaths from terrorism jumped to 23, including Denmark, Sweden, France, and Turkey.”

Iceland has retained its place as the most peaceful country in the world since 2008, followed by New Zealand, Portugal, Austria and Denmark while war-ravaged Syria and Afghanistan remained at the bottom of the rankings.

In South Asia, Bhutan has been identified as the most peaceful country, followed by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bhutan ranks 13th, Sri Lanka 80th, India 137th, Pakistan 152nd and Afghanistan 162nd.

The report said the economic impact of violence on the global economy in 2016 was $14.3 trillion in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms which was equivalent to 12.6 percent of the world's economic activity.

“Since 2008, the global level of peace has deteriorated by 2.14 percent, with 80 countries improving while 83 countries deteriorated. One of the major trends recorded over the last decade has been the growing inequality in peace between the most and least peaceful countries. The GPI shows the difference in score between the least peaceful and most peaceful countries has been increasing.”

The GPI covers 99.7 percent of the world's population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources. It measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of societal safety and security; the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and the degree of militarisation.

The IEP is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace.