Ghana ranked most peaceful country in West Africa, second-most peaceful in Sub-Saharan Africa

Ghana is the second most peaceful country in Sub-Saharan African and the 38th most peaceful in the world, according to the 2021 Global Peace Index (GPI).

With an overall score of 1.715, Ghana is placed just one step behind Mauritius, which remains the most peaceful country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2020, Ghana achieved a score of 1.78 in the Global Peace Index (GPI), a slight increase over the 2019 score.

In that year, 2020, the state of peace in the country was said to be high, with Ghana ranking 43rd in the world (out of 163 countries), third in Sub-Saharan Africa, and first in West Africa.

The GPI was put together by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank, which aims at creating a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace.

They used data-driven research to show that peace is a positive, tangible, and achievable measure of human well-being and development.

Ghana’s neighbour, Nigeria, was ranked 146 most peaceful in the world with an overall score of 2.712.

South Sudan remains the least peaceful country in the region and one of the least peaceful countries in the world, despite an improvement in peacefulness on the 2021 GPI.

According to IEP, feelings of safety had been decreasing in sub-Saharan Africa and 40 per cent of people in the region felt less safe “today than they did five years ago,” the highest percentage, outside of Central and South America.
The Report said Zambia was the country where feelings of safety had decreased the most, with 60 per cent of Zambians feeling less safe.

It said, however, there were a few countries in the region where feelings of safety had increased considerably, adding that, Rwanda had the highest proportion of people globally who felt more, safe today than they did five years ago, at 67 per cent.

The Report said nearly a quarter of people in sub-Saharan Africa cited crime, violence, or terrorism as the greatest risk to their safety in their daily lives, making it the most cited risk in the region.

It said South Africa had the highest proportion of people who cited it as the greatest risk, at 52 per cent.

The IEP said there was no country in the region where less than ten per cent of the population identified violence as the greatest risk to their daily safety.
The Report said fear of violence was higher in sub-Saharan Africa than any other region except South America, with 55 per cent of people reporting that they were very worried about being a victim of violent crime.

It said Madagascar was the only country where less than 20 per cent of people were very worried, with over half of the population being very worried in 21 of the 34 countries in the region.

The Report said the experience of violence was also higher in sub-Saharan Africa than any other region and nearly 38 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans had experienced or knew someone who had suffered serious harm from violent crime in the past two years.

It said the five countries with the largest proportion of people globally to answer yes to the experience of violence question were all in sub-Saharan Africa.

The IEP noted that the percentage was highest in Namibia, where 63 per cent of respondents had an experience of violence, with Mauritania being the only country in the region where the experience of violence rate was under 20 per cent.

The Report said Sub-Saharan Africa recorded a slight fall in peacefulness on the 2021 GPI, with the average country score deteriorating by 0.5 per cent.

It said of the 44 countries in the region, 21 improved, 22 deteriorated in the score and one remained unchanged.

The Report said the region was less peaceful than the global average on the Safety and Security and Ongoing Conflict domains, but more peaceful than the global average on the militarisation domain.