Kiva and the Failed States Index

[Guest]

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[fredr1c]

It could be interesting* to look at Kiva's efforts in the countries it serves within a context that relates these countries in a meaningful way to one another.

One such context is the Failed States Index (FSI), a production of The Fund for Peace (FfP), a nonprofit "research and educational organization that works to prevent war and alleviate the conditions that cause war".

The 2007 Failed States Index "rates 177 countries based on their social, economic, and political pressures."  Countries are ranked based on a combined assessment of twelve social, economic and political indicators, and these rankings are based on data gathered between May and December of 2006.

It might be fun* to look at how the FSI relates in various ways to Kiva's work and even to some discussions we've had here at Kivafriends.  <cliche>The possibilities are endless.</cliche>

Here's one example: Kiva serves or has recently served 11 of the top 32 nations in the 2007 FSI,  countries that fall into the FSI's "Alert" category:

Iraq (#2)     
Chad (#5)
Cote D'Ivoire (#6)
Afghanistan (#8)
Democratic Republic of Congo (#7)
Haiti (#11)
Pakistan (#12)
Uganda (#15)
Nigeria (#17)
Sierra Leone (#23)
Kenya (#31)

...and Kivafriends discussed how Kiva's efforts in Chad ended prematurely for the time being because of internal and external factors that were beyond MFI ACODE's control. These factors are referenced in both the 2007 FSI and in more detail in Chad's FfP profile.

You can read more about the FSI, including how so-called failed states destabilize their neighbors, in Foreign Policy's article The Failed States Index 2007.





*this weekend, "interesting" and "fun" are defined as any wholesome thing that keeps me away from cutting the grass and washing the cars

[Diane R]

Fascinating articles, thank you so much for posting this.  Much to think about...  (But I don't need more "interesting" things today, I have work to do, LOL!)

--Diane.

[fredr1c]

Fascinating articles, thank you so much for posting this.  Much to think about...  (But I don't need more "interesting" things today, I have work to do, LOL!)

--Diane.

Yep, as do I -- and now my grass is that much longer, and my cars are that much dustier. 

....but before I go outside, heres a couple of other things about the 2007 Failed States Index.  You can rank all 177 nations by each of the 12 indicators by clicking on the column that represents that indicator.

For example Iraq, already number two overall (and served by Kiva), is a runaway #1 when the nations are ranked just on the fourth indicator, "Chronic and Sustained Human Flight".

You can also flip the entire index by clicking on the "Total" column, and look at which nations are rated "most sustainable". 

If you flip the entire thing over you can see that the top three most sustainable nations as rated by this index are Norway, Finland and Sweden, all northern European nations with largely homogeneous populations.  The United States isn't even ranked in the top ten most sustainable.

Another interesting place for up to date country statistics is the CIA Factbook.

Fred

[fredr1c]

(please see the first post above, from one year ago)

The 4th annual version of the Failed States Index is now available here:

http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=140

Foreign Policy has an accompanying article go with this year's FSI.

[Limesarah]

Kiva has also served entrepreneurs in the #1 state -- Sudan.  I'm guessing the MFI there has as many borrowers as it can handle, but the Sudanese business I've lent to seems to be doing well so far.