Lakhasly

A benchmarking tool like the IDI allows for meaningful comparisons among peers and against relevant group averages.Figure 8 shows the distribution of IDI scores by region and by selected group of interest: least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS).4 For each group (and region), the red line corresponds to the group average IDI score.But this result conceals extreme disparities among the Arab States, for example: this grouping includes countries with the highest (98.2) and second-lowest IDI score (21.4) among the 169 economies studied.Among the 10 economies with an IDI score above 95, four are from the Arab States, three are from Europe, two are from Asia-Pacific, and one is from the Americas.Likewise, in the Asia-Pacific grouping there is a 69-point gap between the best (98.4) and worst-performing (28.9) country.Wave crests indicate denser concentrations of countries.

A benchmarking tool like the IDI allows for meaningful comparisons among peers and against relevant group averages. Figure 8 shows the distribution of IDI scores by region and by selected group of interest: least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS).4 For each group (and region), the red line corresponds to the group average IDI score. Wave crests indicate denser concentrations of countries. The more numerous, flatter and longer the waves are, the more heterogeneity there is within a group.
Indeed, when it comes to connectivity, geography is a very poor predictor of IDI performance. Among the 10 economies with an IDI score above 95, four are from the Arab States, three are from Europe, two are from Asia-Pacific, and one is from the Americas. Among the six regions, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) group achieve the best group performance (red line furthest right) and are also the most, homogeneous regions (tall, narrow wave). Asia-Pacific (74.6), the Americas (74.8) and the Arab States (74.5) achieve almost the same average score. But this result conceals extreme disparities among the Arab States, for example: this grouping includes countries with the highest (98.2) and second-lowest IDI score (21.4) among the 169 economies studied. Likewise, in the Asia-Pacific grouping there is a 69-point gap between the best (98.4) and worst-performing (28.9) country. Africa’s average IDI score (47.4) is the lowest among the regions. Twenty-five of the 33 African economies included in the IDI score below the 50-point mark. Eight of the ten economies scoring below 30 are from Africa. But even in this region, there is still a 60-point difference between the region’s best (81.7) and worst-performing (20.0) country.