Pakistan among top 10 generous countries

Pakistan has climbed up 14 places in the World Giving Index 2017, making it to the top 10 generous countries despite a declining trend across continents in global giving.

The eighth edition, released by the Charities Aid Foundation and based on a global poll of 146, 000 respondents of the survey by Gallup, ranked the country at 78 in 2017, when it was at placed at 92 last year.

Constructed around willingness of a country’s natives in donating money, helping a stranger and during volunteering times to help others, Pakistan scored 47 per cent, 31 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. Consequently, it made to the top 10 in donating money where it is ranked fifth and helping a stranger ranked seventh.

The survey found that the “donating money” and “helping a stranger” rate fell by nearly two per cent while volunteering dropped one per cent. But generosity in developing countries, specifically Africa, was seen at a rise.

“This year, all developed countries in the top 20 most generous show a fall,” writes Sir John Low, CEO of CAF. “But across the continent of Africa, giving is on the rise,” he added.

“Last year’s report found that giving habits in Africa had recorded a positive shift after several years of little change. Africa has this year gone against the global downward trend and is the only continent to see an increase in all three giving behaviours when compared to its five-year average score,” he said.

Interestingly, western countries saw a sharp decline in 2017 with New Zealand, the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Malta, Iceland, Germany and Norway losing between one and five percentage points. While “scores for the continents of Europe, Asia and Oceania are lower than their five-year averages, Asia specifically has seen a decline in all three giving behaviours,” according to CAF.