In a world previously dominated by expert opinions and reform packages handed down by international institutions, a new trend focusing on grass roots public opinions has begun to emerge. The Pew Research Center has been a major voice in the quest for public opinion. Initiated in 2001, the Pew Research Center has conducted the Pew Global Attitudes Survey to measure public opinion about global issues around the world. According to the PEW report, the survey is “a series of worldwide public opinion surveys encompassing a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day.” [1]  Based on the benchmark survey conducted in 1991 in 13 nations, the Pew Global Attitudes survey has grown and expanded not only its country base but also the variety of subjects it researches.

The 2007 Survey was conducted in 47 nations, and in the entirety of the project, 54 nations have been represented. The latest survey suggests global unease, distrust in global leaders and an increased concern about issues like environmental degradation and the gap between the rich and the poor. The IIJD acknowledges that this kind of survey is essential to realizing change, because it addresses the concerns and opinions of individuals as opposed to projected situations resulting from much smaller surveys and other prediction methods. The Pew Global Attitudes Survey has conducted over 150,000 interviews with people around the world, asking them what they feel are the most threatening issues in the world today and who they feel is responsible for addressing them. Similarly, the IIJD is planning to conduct a widespread public opinion survey, called the African Justice Survey Project, on a smaller scale and focusing on African public opinion and experience of African judicial systems. As an organization that has consistently been dedicated to including the voices of individuals and grass roots organizations in its reform plans, we are pleased that this trend is receiving more attention in the development world.

The 2007 PEW Survey shows some very interesting trends, many showing African nations defying the generalizations made about the results of the survey. For example, although the trends show that there has been a major increase in concern for the environment; African nations are at the bottom of this trend. Grouped in regions, the percentage of people who named environmental problems as a top threat had percentages of worry in the high 30s to the 70s, compared to percentages in the low 20s or below for African countries surveyed. The survey reports that 37% in the United States,  and 70% in China place environmental problems as a top threat. In Africa, the highest percentage of people who noted the environment as a major concern was 24% in Tanzania, and the low was 7% in Ethiopia. Africa was also the only continent to experience stagnation or a negative change in the percent of people considering the environment a major global threat; all other countries and regions with data available for comparison showed an increase in concern. Instead, the survey reports “AIDS and infectious diseases are named most frequently as global threats by publics in each of the 10 countries surveyed in this region,” with the growing economic gap as the second most concerning threat [2]. It is important to note these stark differences between the concerns of the developed and the developing world. The threats felt are more direct in sub-Saharan Africa; they are ones of health, life, and death. They also indicate growing concern that the possibility of economic development is diminishing as the chasm between the rich and poor widens.

Strikingly, African nations have a much more positive view of the United States despite (or because of) its clear wealth, and are much more hospitable to its incorporation into business, democratic governance, and culture than other areas of the world. In a collection of data listing the countries that most like and least like “American ideas about democracy” and “American ways of doing business,” there are no African countries in the “Dislike most” list, but the “Like most” list is by far represented by African nations (Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, and Uganda). Israel is the only non-African country in the list that most likes American democratic ideals. As far as American business, Africa continues to dominate, occupying the top half of the list of countries that most like the American way of doing business. As far as those African citizens who believe the United States and China have an important influence in their lives, the report states that most people in the African countries surveyed say that “the U.S. has considerable influence”. However, in countries such as Mali and the Ivory Coast, positive American influence is rivaled or exceeded by that of China [3].  This transitioning influence is important in indicating the responsibility of all nations to support justice and government reform, development and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

The majority of African nations surveyed said that their own countries or the United Nations should be responsible for addressing their most pressing issues of AIDS, infectious disease and religious or ethnic hatred. The survey analysis notes that “while the growing gap between the wealthy and poor is described by many as a major global concern, concerned publics most often look to their own country to take responsibility for dealing with this problem. This is the case in … Kenya … where concern about income inequality is most widespread [for sub-Saharan Africa].” [4]

These trends are important for several reasons. They indicate the important influence that the United States and other first-world nations hold in African nations, and therefore the enormous responsibility guiding these nations toward the establishment of democratic institutions and fair and free justice systems. It is also apparent that individuals in these countries have a genuine desire for their governments to emulate some form of democracy. However, there is also a strong belief that the solution to the most pressing problems in Sub-Saharan African states needs to evolve out of the country itself. For the IIJD, this reinforces its belief in the work it is doing, working to reform the justice systems in African nations and working from both the top down and the bottom up. The IIJD believes that these public opinions are essential in gauging the wants and needs of each nation’s citizens, and that without them, we cannot effectively offer suggestions and solutions to the global problems that most affect African states.