Mapping World Fragility

World

By Eric Bias
fragility, corruption, press freedom, civil liberties, inequality, development

This project uses six indices, each measuring different aspects of fragility, and maps them to easily draw cross-country comparisons.

Fragility is defined by the OECD’s 2015 States of Fragility report as a “combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacity of the state, system and/or communities to manage, absorb or mitigate those risks.” However this definition obscures the huge and varied number of factors that can figure into fragility, such as the ability of the state to provide basic services equitably across groups, guaranteeing the personal security of a state’s citizens, and ensuring the freedom of those citizens from state oppression. Even agreement on a standard definition can be troubling, given differences between personal perspectives and experiences.

For this project, I aim to show different forms of state fragility comparatively across countries on a single map. I am using six different datasets from NGOs and intergovernmental agencies: Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2018 and Freedom of the Press 2017 datasets, UNDP’s Human Development Index 2015, the Fragile States Index 2017 by the Fund for Peace, the World Bank’s Gini Index 2015, and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2017. Since each of these indices measure different aspects of fragility, as measured from different organizations with their own specialties and biases, new insights can be gained. I have included links to the datasets in the final website for users to easily find more information on the organizations and their goals.

Users draw conclusions from the map by toggling between the different indices using the radio button on the top right of the map. Each index is represented by a color (e.g. corruption is red, freedom of press is orange). The darker the color, the higher a given quality is represented by a particular country. When a user clicks on a country, a popup is displayed with a numerical value of each index for that country, when available. The dropdowns on the left provides context on what each value means.

Looking at countries in this way often yields some interesting findings. Italy, for instance, being a rich, European country, is behind many of its neighbors in terms of corruption and press freedom. Furthermore, Canada ranks higher than the US in many indices, including civil and political liberties and income inequality (Gini Score).

Mapping state fragility is important because the more fragile a state is, the more likely conflict can develop. By understanding the limitations of countries, and how they are fragile, policymakers, governments, and practitioners can better develop strategies for the mitigation of risk, development, and eventual reform.