Zimbabwe is ranked sixth in the 2011 edition of the Failed States Index compiled annually by Washington-based watchdog Fund for Peace.
Despite a slight improvement from last year’s fourth position, the report said the formation of Harare’s coalition government had failed to extricate the country from the abyss.
“Despite the power-sharing agreement between Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe remains a highly unstable country, suffering from government repression, rigged elections and poor economic performance,” the report said.
A coalition government formed by Mugabe and former opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is batting to revive the country’s shattered economy.
Unending bickering between the two former foes as well as the coalition government’s inability to secure direct financial support from rich Western nations have held back its efforts to rebuild the economy.
Fund for Peace said the creation of a friendlier business environment, capable of luring Zimbabweans in the Diaspora back home and attracting foreign investment would be necessary to help improve the economy.
It observed that the power-sharing government has also been undermined by arrests and intimidation of opposition leaders.
“The failure to fully implement the power-sharing agreement, and satisfactorily devolving power to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, severely undermines the government’s credibility,” it added.
Zanu (PF) continues to use the state security apparatus as a political tool to harass opposition voices.
Zimbabwe is fast sliding into a police state as political temperatures rise amid talk of possible polls during the coming two years.
Tsvangirai has previously warned that hardline security chiefs are deliberately undermining the civilian government which they want to fall.
A failed state is a country characterised by little or no governance, endemic corruption, profiteering by ruling elites, very poor human rights record and where the government cannot protect the population from itself or others.
It is also marked by massive internal conflict, forced internal or external displacement, institutionalised political exclusion of significant numbers of the population, progressive deterioration of welfare infrastructure such as hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses, as well as progressive economic decline of the country as a whole as measured by per capita income, debt, severe child mortality rates and poverty levels.
Somalia again retained top spot as the world’s worst failed state for the fourth year in a row, followed by Chad, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq and Ivory Coast.
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