Countries with positive peace record double GDP growth, says global peace expert

A global peace advocate and founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Steve Killelea, has underscored the importance of peace to national development, noting that countries improving in Positive Peace record GDP growth rates twice as high as those experiencing deterioration.

Killelea said this in Abuja during a high-level meeting with Conflict Research Network West Africa to advance Positive Peace in Nigeria and the wider West African subregion.

The meeting aimed to deepen collaboration between IEP and CORN West Africa and to equip policymakers, researchers, and communities with the tools, data, and frameworks needed to build sustainable peace across the region.

Killelea added that building the attitudes, institutions, and structures that sustain peace creates an enabling environment for societies to thrive.

The Associate Director, CORN West Africa, Obinna Chukwuezie, highlighted that while global frameworks, such as those that inform the Global Peace Index, provide critical structure for understanding peace and conflict trends, there is often a gap in real-time, localized, and perception-based data.

“This is where CORN West Africa can add value, by co-developing localized peace metrics and linking data to narratives that influence behaviour and policy,” he said.

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The Team Lead of SPRiNG, Prof Ukiwo Ukoha, said the NPAID initiative led by CORN West Africa was an innovation that would complement the systematic tracking of data on indicators of violent conflict.

“We are fascinated by the prospects of NPAID helping us shed light on why some contexts have remained peaceful amidst the presence of drivers of violence and mobilizations towards violence.

“By tracking peace efforts by government, community, security, and civil society actors and institutions, we will be able to account for resilience. In this way, we can build and share evidence of what works and why. By sharing the evidence, we will be influencing uptake and replication of good practice, and consequently, promoting sustainable peace,” Ukoha said.

Head of Programs and Operations, CORN West Africa, Lara Raji, emphasized the significance of Nigeria Peace Web as a platform for documenting peace actions, actors, and local mechanisms that sustain stability.

She noted that by contributing qualitative, real-time insights, the platform is positioned to complement global datasets such as the Global Peace Index and Positive Peace Index, strengthening the overall evidence base for peacebuilding.