Bangladesh has been ranked 121st out of 157 nations in the 2024 World Citizenship Report, according to CS Global Partners, achieving an overall score of 45.5 out of 100.
The report, published by the government advisory and marketing firm specialising in Citizenship by Investment, employs a comprehensive analytical framework consisting of five categories, moving beyond mere passport ranking.
Bangladesh ranked 122 in Safety and Security, 57 in Economic Opportunity, 120 in Quality of Life, 126 in Global Mobility, and 123 in Financial Freedom.
In 2024, the report said, global citizens are experiencing responsibility in one of its purest, most acute forms: electoral responsibility.
This year, the notion of 'global citizenship' has taken on a profound sense of responsibility, particularly in terms of electoral engagement, according to the report.
It said half of the world's population are participating in elections this year, affecting regions from Bangladesh and India in the East to the UK, the European Union, and the US in the West.
The report emphasised that these significant electoral changes are raising important questions about migration, geopolitical instability, climate change, and warfare. "Above all, these changes concern obligations: to the community, to the nation, and to the wider world,” the report said."
The report aims to be a “data-driven tool to understand the chaotic, often contradictory and demanding responsibilities of global citizens”.
Bangladesh’s neighbour India ranked 103 with a headline score of 49.5 while Pakistan scored 38.1 to rank 145.
Ireland topped the list with a headline score of 86.6, followed by Switzerland with 86.0, Denmark with 84.6, Australia with 83.0 and Iceland with 82.7.
War-torn Yemen is at the bottom of the list at 157th position with a headliner score of 27.0. Other war-ravaged countries, such as Syria (29.0), Sudan (29.3) and Afghanistan (29.6) are near Yemen in the ranking.
BANGLADESH, ELECTION AND CLIMATE
Kicking off 2024 — what may be called the year of electoral responsibility — was Bangladesh.
On Jan 7, the Awami League’s Sheikh Hasina was returned by voters in her fourth consecutive election win.
Taiwan followed closely on Bangladesh’s heels, electing Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party on Jan 13.
On Valentine’s Day, Indonesia held the world’s biggest single-day election. As the world’s third most populous democracy and fourth most populous nation, its election of Prabowo Subianto reverberated around the world.
Notable elections in India, the world’s most populous democracy, followed. The EU elections will follow soon after. The year ends with defining elections in the United States.
Besides prioritising elections, The report focused on climate displacement, identifying it as one of the most devastating consequences of the century.
“The climate migrants under this category are impelled or induced to migrate because of either their livelihoods being rendered unsustainable by proliferating natural disasters, or the irreversible degradation of environmental resources resulting from devastating recurring events.
“Year-on-year floods, persistent droughts, the slow onset impacts of rising sea levels and desertification are a few such events occurring globally,” the report said.
It used coastal Bangladesh for example, as salinity intrusion has increased by about 26 percent over the past 35 years with the affected area expanding each year.
That, combined with tidal flooding and storm surge, has rendered areas uninhabitable to live.
A World Bank report estimates that around 300,000 migrants arrive in the capital city Dhaka each year, with coastal flooding and saline intrusion considered a major factor for so many fleeing the country’s coastal belt in the last decade.
According to the United Nations Migration forecast, one in seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by 2051, the aggregate looming number could be 13.3 million people.
“While the mass influx of migrants would be on the run inside the country, for a select segment of the population with the capacity to exert choice, voluntary economic migration to other countries would be inevitable,” the World Citizenship Report said.
