Simon Anholt, renowned political adviser to national, regional and local governments, lists countries according to their contribution to global well-being – and thus provides insights that could help countries rethink the way they think about their economic achievements.
Some countries enjoy a good reputation, the trust of the iternational community and – not to forget – good financial credit. But it would be a fallacy to believe that the economic power and the wealth of a country would ensure that reputation, according to Simon Anholt. These days, Anholt believes that the contribution that country makes towards the greater global good plays a larger role in its reputation than anything else. In this sense, “good” actions count the most, followed by trust, then stability, creditworthiness and bargaining power and only then above-average economic performance – at least according to Anholt who, together Dr. Robert Glover, has developed the Good Country Index.
Good in the Sense of Selfless
The Good Country Index lists 125 countries according to one central question – how much a country contributes and takes away from the global common good. Here, ”good” does not mean the opposite of ”bad” rather its meaning focuses more on selflessness. 35 records, mostly from UN studies, which cover topics such as education, science, war and peace, trade, culture, censorship, environment and freedom in seven categories, are included in the listing. From these data sets, a general ranking and a ranking for each category is then created. Unlike other ranking systems,one of the key points with the Good Country Index is that, in terms of areas like growth, stability, equity, democracy, freedom and contentment, each country is not considered as an entity on its own but rather, the global community is understood as a whole to which each country makes a mre or less postive impact.
Currently, all indicators are weighted equally because “…it’s largely a matter of opinion whether, for example, emitting CO2 does more harm to humanity than invading another country ”. The developers are considering adding another function to future versions that would allow interested parties to weight the global challenges themselves and thereby create a personal ranking.
Charity Is Not a Question of Money but of Mind
And which is the most charitable country? Ireland! Followed by Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK, Norway, Dänemark and Belgium – most of whom are industrialised western nations. It perhaps stands to reason that wealthy countries that enjoy stability are able to focus more on making positive contributions to the global environment and wellbeing as opposed to countries that are in a state of crisis or at war. However, this result frustrates Simon Anholt who has previously stated in a TEDxTalk that ”…one of the things that I did not want to discover with this index is that it’s purely the province of rich countries to help poor countries”. On that point, Anholt is pleased that Kenya ranks among the top 30 countries, demonstrating that money is not necessarily the deciding factor in whether a country is considered, under this system, as ‘good’ and that the mentality, culture and attitude of the government and citizens play a much larger role.
Rather than exposing or judging the actions of certain countries, the team behind Good Country Index are looking to ignite a debate around the actions of global states: ”…the biggest challenges facing humanity today are global and borderless: climate change, economic crisis, terrorism, drug trafficking, slavery, pandemics, poverty and inequality, population growth, food and water shortages, energy, species loss, human rights, migration … the list goes on. All of these problems stretch across national borders, so the only way they can be properly tackled is through international efforts. The trouble is, most countries carry on behaving as if they were islands, focusing on developing domestic solutions to domestic problems. We’ll never get anywhere unless we start to change this habit”.
