'State of Our State': How Lebanon's Situations Got Worse in 2020

The Lebanon Renaissance Foundation on Tuesday released its 2020 version of the ‘State of Our State’ index, which evaluates the country’s situation in several key fields on yearly basis.

The Foundation has released yearly reports since 2010.

“State of our State index compiles, on annual basis, the evaluations of people hailing from diverse backgrounds, all of whom members of the Foundation (activists, former officials and business leaders),” the Foundation said in a statement emailed to Naharnet.

“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,” it added.

“Inspired by similar approaches created by various research & analysis groups, 13 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,” the Foundation explained.

The biggest drops in 2020 were recorded in the fields of the quality of political leadership, the rule of law, the efficiency of civil society and the government’s control over its territory.

Since inception in 2010 with a score of 4.3/10, the index has dropped 7 times and remained unchanged twice with a single improvement recorded in 2016.

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 year under review (2020).

1. Stability over 3 years (LEB 1.9 - NOR 8.7)

2. Citizens’ personal security (LEB 2.7 – NOR 8.6)

3. Government control over territory (LEB 1.4 – NOR 9.4)

4. Capacity to resist foreign influence (LEB 1.2 – NOR 8.2)

5. Rule of law (LEB 1.5 – NOR 9.0)

6. Quality of political leadership (LEB 0.5 – NOR 8.0)

7. Freedom of speech (LEB 4.2 – NOR 9.0)

8. Cultural and religious tolerance (LEB 4.4 – NOR 8.0)

9. Efficiency of civil society (LEB 4.3 – NOR 8.0)

10. Limiting corruption (LEB 2.0 – NOR 8.0)

11. Confidence in public institutions (LEB 1.7 – NOR 8.0)

12. Economic transparency (LEB 1.4 – NOR 9.0)

13. Sovereign debt settlement record (LEB 1.4 – NOR 8.0)

Score over 10: LEBANON 2.2 – NORWAY 8.4

- Last year (2019) result:

Lebanon 3.2/10

Norway 8.5/10

- 2018 result

Lebanon 3.2/10

Norway 8.4/10