By Linda Kwanjana
A renowned international think tank, Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) has named Malawi among 15 peaceful African countries.
In a report published this week the institute describes
Peace as a state of mutual harmony between people or groups. According to the IEP, there are two common conceptions of peace — Negative Peace, or Actual Peace, and Positive Peace.
Negative Peace is the absence of violence or fear of violence — an intuitive definition that many agree with.
Measures of Negative Peace are the foundation of the Global Peace Index.
However, while the Global Peace Index tells how peaceful a country is, it doesn’t showcase what or where should be invested to strengthen or maintain levels of peace.
Therefore, the need for Positive Peace. It is derived from the data contained within the Global Peace Index. Positive Peace provides a framework to understand and address the many complex challenges the world faces.
The 17th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness ranks Mauritius as the most peaceful country in Africa
The GPI which covers 163 countries comprising 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of
Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.
The list names Mauritius as the most peaceful followed by Botswana, Sierra Leone, Ghana
Senegal, Madagascar, Namibia and Gambia in that order.
On the list of 15 there are also Zambia, Liberia,
Malawi, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Morocco.
What this mean is that Malawi has great opportunity for investment.
Any investor before coming into a country does check about this peace component.
