HUMANS naturally desire happiness, yet they often turn against each other and live in conflict which is incompatible with this natural desire. Although there are national, regional, and global efforts to create a fairer, just and better world for all of us, these efforts are debilitated by ongoing conflicts and wars in various parts of the world.

Global Peace Index (GPI) 2024, which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness, suggests that “many of the conditions that precede major conflicts are higher than they have been since the end of the Second World War.”

It explains that there are now 56 conflicts in various parts of the world, “the most since the end of Second World War, and with fewer conflicts being resolved, either militarily or through peace agreements.”

Moreover, it acknowledges there has been a significant rise in both conflicts and battle deaths in the past two decades, with battle deaths reaching a 30-year high in 2022. While justice and peace activists campaign for pacifism there is in some countries mounting political instability and social unrest which make people more uncertain about their tomorrow.

Growing armament, the indiscriminate killing and wounding of civilians, and the destruction of infrastructure and homes in some countries are indicative of how humans turn against each other where they should live interdependently.

This phenomenon forces people to flee their countries to seek refuge in other countries, usually far from home after losing almost everything they have, including all or some members of their families, relatives, friends and neighbours.

World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Risks Report 2025 says “Deepening divisions and increasing fragmentation are reshaping international relations and calling into question whether existing structures are equipped to tackle the challenges collectively confronting us.”

It says levels of global cooperation across many areas of geopolitics and humanitarian issues, economic relations, and environmental, societal and technological challenges may reach new lows in the coming years.

It is situations of such restlessness and uncertainty that shape the understanding of the concept of global citizenship and make it more meaningful. It focuses on the education which makes people value their unity in diversity, interdependence and connectedness that go beyond their national, regional or continental limits to encompass all humanity.

Global citizenship skills can be inculcated through intercultural or multicultural education – the type of education that makes learners at all levels of education respect and value their peers and people from other cultures and nationalities. It is with these skills that we can put a xenophobic tendency experienced in some countries at bay. Xenophobia is based on prejudice and hatred directed towards people from other cultures and nationalities.

UNESCO in its ‘Global Citizenship Education: Preparing learners for the 21st century 2014’ suggests that global citizenship “refers more to a sense of belonging to a broader community and common humanity, promoting a ‘global gaze’ that links the local to the global and the national to the international. It is also a way of understanding, acting and relating oneself to others and the environment in space and in time, based on universal values through respect for diversity and pluralism.”       

Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) in its report titled “Positive Peace Report 2024” touts attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies in the world. It says countries with higher levels of positive peace are more resilient, are associated with robust and thriving economies, have better performance on ecological measures, have higher levels of wellbeing and happiness, have stronger measures of social cohesion, and have greater satisfaction with living standards.

It underlines that such societies are less encumbered by the costs and wastage of violence or political instability, have higher productivity, better access to information and are not heavily weighed down by corruption or ineffective governments. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, IEP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human wellbeing and progress. 

“Social systems that operate with higher degrees of positive peace are more resilient and capable of offering more effective protection to their citizens against adverse shocks, whether political, environmental or economic, they recover faster and are more likely to put in place coping strategies to be better prepared for future shocks. High-resilience societies are also more likely to take advantage of positive disruptions or opportunities arising from the creation of new economic paradigms and technological innovation,” says IEP in its Positive Peace Report 2024.

Intercultural or multicultural education is more relevant today than at any other time due to ongoing conflicts and wars that threaten national, regional and international peace. The manufacturing, testing and possession of nuclear weapons, which have long-term health consequences for our planet and humanity, contradict our shared humanity, interdependence and connectedness.

Let’s embrace the spirit of global citizenship and see each other more as interdependent and connected rather than split and isolated.