Positive Peace Index 2019
The Positive Peace Index 2019 and the accompanying Positive Peace Report are published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
IEP believes that peace is much more than the absence of violence. Positive Peace describes the attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies, and what effect positive peace has in establishing environments that maximize human potential.
In 2019, 128 countries showed improvements in their Positive Peace Index since 2009, while only 35 showed deteriorations.
Positive Peace is a transformational concept. Empirically based, it shifts the focus away from the negative to the positive aspects that create the conditions for a society to flourish. Due to its systemic nature, improvements in Positive Peace are associated with many desirable outcomes for society, such as higher GDP growth, better measures of wellbeing, higher levels of resilience and more peaceful societies. More importantly, it provides a theory of social change, and explains how societies change and evolve.
In the Positive Peace Report 2019, IEP says that
humanity is nearing a tipping point and facing challenges unparalleled in its short history. Many of these problems are global in nature, such as climate change, ever-decreasing biodiversity, depletion of the earthās freshwater, and overpopulation. Such global challenges call for global solutions and require cooperation on a scale unprecedented in human history. In a hyper-connected world, the sources of many of these challenges are multidimensional, increasingly complex and span national borders. For this reason, finding solutions requires fundamentally new ways of thinking.
The Institute has developed a conceptual framework, known as the Pillars of Peace, that outlines a system of eight factors that work together to build positive peace.Ā These Pillars are:
- a well functioning government,
- a sound business environment,
- an equitable distribution of resources,
- an acceptance of the rights of others,
- good relations with neighbours,
- free flow of information,
- a high level of human capital,
- low levels of corruption.
Derived from a statistical analysis of over 5,000 datasets, the Pillars of Peace provides a roadmap to overcome adversity and conflict, and to build lasting peace.
After explaining in more detail what positive peace consists of, the Report provides an overview of the findings and trends that emerge from this yearās Positive Peace Index, which measures 163 countries. The report goes on to look at
- Positive peaceās relationship with economic growth and resilience,
- The relationship between positive peace in a country and transitions in peace and violence,
- Case studies on how countries can increase positive peace.
To download the report visit economicsandpeace.org/research/#positive-peace