In the midst of the current socio-economic difficulties, Ghana continues to make significant strides on the global Fragile State Index (FSI).
Ghana’s economy, according to the economic managers, is reeling under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic further deepened by the Russia-Ukraine war. In recent times, the economy has experienced a significant rise in inflation levels, depreciation of the cedi, high unemployment levels, and ballooning public debt among others.
The situation left the government with no option but to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervention despite an earlier strong stance against the move. Despite the implementation of the IMF programme, many Ghanaians say the situation has not improved but rather, further worsened even though some major economic indicators are showing positive outcomes.
Given the current state of the economy, many Ghanaians are of the opinion that Ghana is heading toward a failed state if not already a failed state thereby questioning the current resilience and stability of the country.
However, these opinions sharply contrast with Ghana’s performance on the global Fragile State Index (FSI). The FSI is an indicator by the World’s Fund for Peace to assess the stability and resilience of a country. It is a system that ranks countries based on their stability and the pressures they face across 12 indicators. These 12 indicators are categorized under Economic, Social, Political, and Cohesion.
According to the index, a high overall score indicates that a country is fragile and faces problems such as economic difficulties, instability, and conflict, and is at risk of collapse. However, a low score indicates that the country is more stable and resilient.
Interestingly, despite the current numerous challenges in Ghana, it has been performing creditably well on the index over the last 10 years.
Since the introduction of the index in 2006, Ghana’s highest score was in 2015 when the country recorded 71.8 and ranked 100th globally. This score indicates that the country at the time was facing challenges in terms of stability and resilience. This score places the country in the “danger” or “alert” category regarding its stability and resilience.
However, since 2015, Ghana has been chalking steady success on the index recording a year-on-year constant decline which suggests the country has been making remarkable progress in the areas of resilience and stability.
The graph below shows the FSI trend of Ghana since 2015.
Ghana currently in 2024 has a score of 60.8 which means there has been a steady improvement in stability and resilience compared to its score of 71.8 in 2015. Despite the score improvement, Ghana ranks 106th out of 179 countries ranked globally which suggests that other countries are outpacing our efforts.
For the country to significantly improve its score and further consolidate its resilience and stability, specific indicators where the country is performing poorly require serious attention. These indicators are demographic pressures, economic inequality, human flight and brain drain, public services, and the general economy.
Although there are significant socioeconomic challenges in Ghana, the country cannot be described as a failed state or heading toward collapse since it has been making positive gains on the global Fragile State Index (FSI) in the last 10 years.
