Page 409 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 4

STS2320 Mohamed A I.
CI is the proposed composite indicator to be computed; wj is the relative
weight of the sub-component SC; and n is the number of sub-components
aggregated to form the composite indicator.

3. Results
GKI scores are distributed on a scale from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate
greater progress towards meeting the knowledge requirements of
development. Switzerland (73), , Finland (69), Sweden (69), the United States
(68) and Luxembourg (68) obtained the highest rankings, with scores ranging
between 68 to 73. The majority of the high-scoring countries either belong to
the European Union or are located in East Asia. In the Arab region, the top-
scoring country was the UAE, which was ranked 19th. Despite their relative
high scores compared to others, this group of countries is yet to achieve
maximum knowledge efficiency. The lowest scoring countries on the GKI scale
were mostly Sub-Saharan countries. However, they also included three Arab
countries and a number of countries in South and West Asia.
Comparing these results to those of the 2018 Sustainable Development
Index reveals significant correlation between the two indices in terms of the
countries at the top and bottom of the rankings. Furthermore, correlation
coefficient analysis of the GKI and the Human Development Index 2018
showed a very high correlation of around 0.8. An equally high correlation
between the GKI and the Sustainable Development Goals Index reinforces the
conceptual foundation and assumption of the GKI that there is a strong
correlation between knowledge and sustainable human development.
At the sectoral indices level, the lowest scores were recorded in the RDI
sector and ranged from 8 to 61.9. The highest scores were in the General
Enabling Environment (between 25.7 and 84.6). The same trend was noted
when the analysis focused on the best-performing 10 countries and the worst-
performing 10 countries, although average scores varied (Table 1).

Table 1. Sectoral average scores of top 10 ranked and lowest 10 ranked countries

GKI Pre- TVET Higher RDI ICT Economy Enabling
University Education Environment
Top10 68 51 68 58 56 64 63 81
Lowest 30 28 36 28 15 27 32 34

Country scores in the GKI as a whole, as well as in the sectoral indices,
reflect large gaps between nations. These gaps also vary between sectors –
with the widest being in the ICT, RDI and Enabling environment sectors.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
The Global Knowledge Index was created, comprising six sectoral
composite indices and a seventh index measuring the availability of a general

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