Global Peace Index: Bangladesh climbs up 7 notches
Bangladesh has climbed seven notches from last year and secured the 91st position among 163 countries in Global Peace Index for 2021 released by the Institute of Economics and Peace yesterday.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) cumulatively measures safety and security, militarisation, and frequency of ongoing conflicts to fix ranks from most peaceful to least peaceful countries.
Bangladesh's improvement this year makes the country third most peaceful in South Asia, with an overall score of 2.068 -- behind Bhutan and Nepal. Singapore has been named the most peaceful country in Asia, positioning itself at 11th overall in the world.
However, the report also includes Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia in the Positive Peace deficit list, measured until 2019, which claims the countries are likely to experience "increasing levels of violence" over the next decade.
India experienced a slight improvement of 0.7 percent in overall peacefulness over the past year, driven by an improvement in the ongoing conflict domain.
Bangladesh and India have the lowest fear of violence rates in South Asia, with 25 and 23 percent of people respectively being very worried about violent crimes.
The average level of peacefulness in the region improved by 0.1 percent, with improvements occurring in five of the seven countries in the region. South Asia recorded improvements on the militarisation and safety and security domains.
Globally, Bhutan has been ranked 22nd overall, with its level of peacefulness increasing by 0.9 percent over the past year, driven by an improvement in the homicide rate.
On the other hand, Afghanistan remains the least peaceful country in South Asia and the world on the 2021 GPI, a position it has held for the past four years. Afghanistan still has a higher terrorism impact than any other country in the world.
Pakistan was one of the few countries to record an improvement on the violent demonstration indicator, although the overall risk of future civil unrest remains relatively high.
According to the 15th edition of GPI, Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. It is joined at the top of the index by New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, and Slovenia.
Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and Iraq.
The report says the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.07 percent. It reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade have begun to abate, only to be replaced with a new wave of tension and uncertainty as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and rising tensions between many of the major powers.
It says while some forms of violence declined in the short term, growing unease with lockdowns and rising economic uncertainty resulted in civil unrest increasing in 2020. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021.
"The changing economic conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations."