BY DONALD NYANDORO
ZIMBABWE has been ranked as one of the worst performers in knowledge infrastructure, which includes research, knowledge and innovation.
The fifth edition of the Global Knowledge Index (GKI) Leaders report for 2021 revealed that the country slipped 26 positions from its 2020 ranking of 104th, to 130th out of 154 countries in terms of knowledge infrastructure.
The latest report was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation in Dubai last week.
UNDP produces the GKI annually as a measure for tracking the knowledge performance of countries in pre-university education, technical and vocational education and training, higher education, research, development and innovation, information and communications technology, economy, and the general enabling environment.
“GKI represents an important edition to the global repository of knowledge on development, providing diverse and reliable data that helps countries and decision-makers to understand and respond to related transformations and challenges more clearly.”
The report also ranked Zimbabwe 23 out of the 27 countries with medium human development.
Egypt climbed 19 positions and came first among African nations, moving up from the 72nd to the 53rd place among 154 countries.
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In the Sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana was ranked the highest in knowledge development, followed by South Africa and Namibia.
The top 10 African countries are completed by Morocco (101), Kenya (105), Ghana (107), Lesotho (110), Algeria (111) and Rwanda (115).
For the fifth consecutive year, Switzerland ranked number one in the GKI leaders for 2021, followed by Sweden.
The United States dropped to third position, from second position last year, while Finland was ranked fourth, down from third position last year.
The worst performing countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) which was ranked 152nd, followed by Niger (153rd) and Chad (154th).
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