'State of Our State' Index Highlights Further Deterioration in Lebanon in 2019

The Lebanon Renaissance Foundation has released its 2019 version of the ‘State of Our State’ index, which exposes further deterioration at most levels in Lebanon in 2019.

“Some of the worst scores (related to quality of political leadership and debt settlement record) were offset by three improvements induced by the October 17th uprising: efficiency of civil society; limiting corruption and freedom of speech,” LRF said in a statement emailed to Naharnet.

“State of our State compiles, on annual basis, the observations of people hailing from diverse backgrounds, all of whom members of the Foundation (civil society activists, former officials and business leaders) and whose profiles can be found on LRF’s website under About Us - Board of Directors and Senior Staff,” LRF explained.

“Basic functions of a State are to provide physical security, efficient institutions and a capable administration. The Goal of this index is to evaluate Lebanon’s situation and share results with the Lebanese public in a succinct manner. It also enables us to prioritize initiatives that are to be addressed by our foundation,” the Foundation added.

Thirteen criteria have been specifically adopted to reflect the Lebanese conditions. Those same criteria are also evaluated for a model country (Norway) thus enabling the final Lebanese result to be compared to a benchmark or model.

Each of the following 13 criteria is evaluated on a 0 to 10 scale by the evaluators (worst to best) for both Lebanon and Norway and a simple arithmetic average for all evaluators comes out as the index figure for the elapsed year (2019).

1. Stability over 3 years (LEB 3.3 - NOR 8.7)

2. Citizens’ personal security (LEB 4.2 – NOR 8.6)

3. Government control over territory (LEB 3.4 – NOR 9.4)

4. Capacity to resist foreign influence (LEB 2.1 – NOR 8.2)

5. Rule of law (LEB 3.0 – NOR 9.0)

6. Quality of political leadership (LEB 1.4 – NOR 8.0)

7. Freedom of speech (LEB 5.0 – NOR 9.0)

8. Cultural and religious tolerance (LEB 5.0 – NOR 8.0)

9. Efficiency of civil society (LEB 6.0 – NOR 8.0)

10. Limiting corruption (LEB 2.5 – NOR 8.0)

11. Confidence in public institutions (LEB 2.0 – NOR 8.0)

12. Economic transparency (LEB 2.1 – NOR 9.0)

13. Sovereign debt settlement record (LEB 2.1 – NOR 8.0)

Score over 10: LEBANON 3.2 – NORWAY 8.5

- Last year (2018) result

Lebanon 3.2/10

Norway 8.4/10

- 2017 result

Lebanon 3.4/10

Norway 8.5/10

- 2016 result

Lebanon 3.7/10

Norway 8.3/10