Burma crowned ‘most giving’ country in the world
(File) Novice Buddhist monks play with a balloon at a monastic school in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, June 15, 2015. Pic: AP.
26th October 2016
ALTHOUGH categorized a lower-middle income nation by the World Bank, Burma (Myanmar) is the world’s “most giving” country, according to the World Giving Index 2015 released this week by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).
It is also the first country in six years to win in two of three categories measuring generosity, scoring the highest marks of 145 nations for donating money and “volunteering time”.
The index measures the overall generosity of a country by calculating the average of their scores on the three categories, namely giving money, giving (volunteering) time and helping a stranger.
According to CAF’s report, Burma achieved an overall score of 66 percent – the highest on record – beating the United States and New Zealand to take pole position on the index. Both the U.S. and New Zealand shared second place with a score of 61 percent, while Canada, Australia, United Kingdom came in third, fourth and fifth place with scores of 60, 59 and 57 percent respectively.
In the three categories, Burma scored an impressive 92 percent for donating money; 50 percent for volunteering time; and 55 percent for helping a stranger.
CAF credited Burma’s high score for donations to the fact that most Burmese are staunch followers of Buddhism.
“The majority of Myanmarese people are highly devout Theravada Buddhists, regularly giving money and time to ordained monks and nuns, and for the upkeep of temples.
“Such charitable giving is integral to religious observance among Theravada Buddhists and whilst, in many cases, the amounts given will be very small, they still have significant religious meaning and so individuals give regularly, sometimes even on a daily basis,” the foundation said.
It said Burma’s 92 percent score for donations equates to 37 million individuals having donated money.
CAF also said Burma’s performance on the index would likely earn it some attention, not because of its ranking as a lower-middle income nation, but because it confounds assumptions about the association between wealth and generosity.
The group also noted that some might question the accuracy of the rankings, and contrast it with reports on the suffering of the Muslim Rohingya, who are dubbed the world’s most persecuted minority by the United Nations.
“At this point, it is important to remember that the World Giving Index measures only the charitable activities of the general population within a country, and does not take wider issues affecting society into account.
“As such, we make no attempt to rationalise negative or mitigating factors in the World Giving Index ranking,” CAF said.
Apart from Burma, other Southeast Asian nations to earn spots on the index’s top 20 ranking were Malaysia at 10th place with a score of 52 percent and Thailand at 19th place with 48 percent.
Malaysia earned 62 percent in the “helping a stranger” category; 58 percent for donating money and 37 percent for volunteering time. Thailand, on the other hand, scored 44 percent in the first category, and 87 percent and 14 percent in the subsequent two categories respectively.
According to CAF, Malaysia and Kenya are among the most improved countries after the last 2014 ranking was released.
In a summary of its findings, the group said at a global level, the number of those donating money increased in 2015.
“Almost a third (31.5 percent) gave money to a charity in the month prior to interview – a rise of 3.2 percentage points since 2013.
“Encouragingly, participation levels for donating money have increased across all world economy types, where previously developed and developing economies had experienced marginal declines in giving money between 2012 and 2013,” it said.
To promote generosity among nations, the group offered some advice to governments around to world.
Among others, it urged governments to make sure not-for-profit organisations are regulated in a fair, consistent and open way; make it easy for people to give and offer incentives for giving where possible; and promote civil society as an independent voice in public life and respect the right of not-for-profit organisations to campaign.
It also said governments should ensure not-for-profit organisations are transparent and inform the public about their work and encourage charitable giving as nations develop their economies, taking advantage of the world’s growing middle classes.
