Suffering and Good Society Analysis Across African Countries

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation are (1) to explore the utility of applying the Good Society concept to Africa, (2) to find whether there are sufficient data to construct an overall indicator of Good Societies characteristics for African nations, (3) to evaluate to what extent a Good Society index for African societies helps to assess the degree and causes of suffering in Africa, and (4) to explore what can be learned about whether African societies are sufficiently strong to be resilient to disasters and calamities. A Good African Society Index (GASI) was constructed using secondary data from about 2010 on 46 African countries for these nine sub-indexes: Economic Performance; Democracy, Freedom, and Governance; Child Well-Being; Environment and Infrastructure; Safety and Security; Health and Health Systems; Integrity and Justice; Education; and Social Cohesion/Sustainability. Four indicators were used for each sub-index. This GASI index was used to help to predict each of five types of suffering: Poverty, Child Ill-being, Insecurity, Poor Health, and Low Cohesion/Sustainability. In countries high on the GASI, children suffer less and there is less poverty and health-related suffering, but more security and higher social cohesion. Failed states such as the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo had the worst levels of suffering and the lowest GASI levels, which suggests a useful function of the GASI. The degree to which African countries are vulnerable to civil war and HIV-like epidemics suggest that their GASI scores may not be sufficiently high to make them resilient to these types of disasters.

I am grateful to Ron Anderson for valuable comments and suggestions. This research was partly supported by Rhodes University (Grant #RC2013).