DURHAM, N.H.—The Global Social Franchise Index, developed by the Rosenberg International Franchise Center (RIFC) at the University of New Hampshire, ranks 131 countries according to the impacts social entrepreneurship and social franchising can have on the well-being of their populations.

“Social entrepreneurship and social franchising can be powerful ways to efficiently alleviate poverty, improve health, provide educational opportunities and improve other social problems for people at the bottom of the pyramid in the most disadvantaged countries identified in the index,” said E. Hachemi Aliouche, director of the RIFC.

The top 10 countries ranked in the 2020 index are all in Africa: Gambia, Liberia, Chad, Lesotho, Mauritania, Swaziland, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo, in this order. “These are the countries that may benefit most from social entrepreneurship and social franchising,” said Aliouche, noting that this year’s top 10 are nearly identical to those in 2019, with Mali being the sole new addition, thus pushing Benin down to 11.

This annual index incorporates country metrics that include people’s health conditions, education levels, incomes and population size, as well as the riskiness of operating in that country.

“The lower the risks of operating in a given country, the more likely these business models can be successful,” said Aliouche. “Risks taken into account in this index include political, economic, legal and regulatory risks, as well as geographic distance and cultural distance.”

To get an idea of the massive gap between the highest and the lowest ranking countries (Gambia and Germany), a comparison of some of the key metrics reveals that the average Gambian lives 19.5 years less than the average German, has 7.6 years less schooling and earns 31.5 times less. It takes the average Gambian a full year to earn what the average German earns in a little over a week and a half.

The Rosenberg International Franchise Center is a center of excellence for franchise research, education and outreach at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at UNH. To learn more about the Rosenberg International Franchise Center or to view the full list of rankings, visit www.unh.edu/rosenbergcenter/.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.