Ghana has dropped two places in the latest Global Peace Index ranking Africa allowing Sierra Leone to be the most peaceful country in West Africa.
Ghana moved from the second most peaceful country in 2022 to the 4th position in 2023 in the latest Global Peace Index released on June 28, 2023.
According to the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Peace Council (NPC) Rev Dr. Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the development calls for more work as the decline was not too good for Ghana.
Rev Dr. Ernest Adu Gyamfi made this call at a two-day national dialogue on improving civilian – security agency relations for the prevention of violent extremism in Ghana at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.
The national dialogue was organized by the NPC and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with funding from the Netherlands Embassy with the objective of strategically building consensus and trust to improve civilian-security agency relations towards preventing violent extremism in Ghana under a project named the Prevention of Violent Extremism Through Social Accountability (PoVETSA) project.
The dialogue was attended by security agencies including the Ghana Police Service, representatives of the various political parties.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) 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.
Rev Dr. Adu-Gyamfi attributed the decline to some of the happenings in Ghana to threats such as armed robbery incidents, highway robberies as well as some attacks on journalists, political violence, and the land guard menace and other perceptions, which all go to inform the rating and compilation of the results.
He said as a country there was the need to do the best we can to avoid some of these happenings.
He stressed the need to enhance trust and confidence between the security agencies and the civilian population to prevent extremism in Ghana and to improve understanding and tolerance as the country prepared itself for the 2024 general elections.
Mauritius is ranked as the most peaceful country in Africa followed by Botswana, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Senegal making the top 5 in Africa.