Foreign Policy magazine has released the 2012 edition of its Failed States Index. Somalia comes at the top of the list with a score of 114.9 out of a possible 120. Rounding out the top five are Democratic Republic of Congo (111.2), Sudan (109.4), Chad (107.6) and Zimbabwe (106.3), all countries in Africa. South Sudan has been independent for a year now, but it is included as part of Sudan for the purposes of the list.
Afghanistan (106.0), Haiti (104.9), Yemen (104.8) and Iraq (104.3) are 5th to 9th on the list, then it is back to African countries which hold 10 out of the 11 places from 10th to 20th. East Africa features prominently, with Kenya (98.4) at 16th, Ethiopia (97.9) at 17th, Burundi (97.5) at 18th and Uganda (96.5) at 19th. There is some room for debating the results, but the clear picture is that African countries continue to struggle with effective governance.
The rankings were based on marks out of 10 awarded in each of the 12 categories, with 10 indicating the worst possible conditions: demographic pressures, refugees/IDPs, group grievance, human flight, uneven development, economic decline, delegitimisation of the state, public services, human rights, security apparatus, factionalised elites, and external intervention.