The performance of national postal services all around the world is measured taking into consideration four key dimensions of postal development namely reliability, reach, relevance and resilience. The reliability score reflects performance in terms of speed and predictability of delivery, across all the key segments of physical postal services.

The reach score synthesizes global connectivity as indicated by the number of partner networks and the volumes of international exchanges, again across all the key segments of physical postal services.

The relevance score measures the intensity of demand for the full portfolio of postal services relative to the best performers in each category of postal activity, also taking into account elements such as the

number of international transactions.

The resilience score indicates the level of diversification of revenue streams and the capacity to innovate, deliver inclusive postal services and integrate sustainable development targets into postal

business operations.

A score above 75 shows that a country’s postal development is relatively closer to the best absolute performer, Switzerland, with a score of 100. A score between 50 and 75 shows a more intermediate level of performance in the high range, or “upper middle performers”.

A score between 25 and 50 shows a more intermediate level of performance in the low range, or “lower middle performers”, while a score below 25 shows that a country’s postal development is relatively

closer to the worst absolute performer than to the intermediate one. This year’s average score is 37.24 as against 39 in 2017.

Drawing on a wide range of information, such as official postal statistics, surveys and tracking data, the UPU can show how countries around the world are faring in maintaining the critical part of national

infrastructure that the postal sector represents.

The rise of digitalization coupled with other long-term social and macroeconomic transformations has prompted Posts to expand their services well beyond the mere delivery of letters. Indeed, with a global network of over 677,000 post offices, 5.3 million staff and physical infrastructure covering 192 countries, Posts play a critical socio-economic role.

Although the general public may instinctively link Posts to letters and stamps, their span of activities is in fact much wider. Beyond the mere delivery of  letters, many postal operators throughout the world have been building substantial business capabilities in areas as diverse as parcels and logistics, financial services, and even e-government, healthcare and other public services.

To measure the multiple facets of development the UPU created the Integrated Index for Postal Development, or 2IPD. A composite index, the 2IPD captures the multiple facets of postal development. It draws on three main types of UPU data: postal big data, statistics and surveys. Postal big data is used mainly to compute indicators associated with quality of service, transactions, volumes and connectivity. Statistics are applied to the measurement of revenue streams and economies of scale.

Surveys feed into more qualitative considerations, namely, inclusiveness and integration.

A total of 173 countries were assessed for the production of the 2018 global ranking (which is based on full-year data for 2017). Switzerland (100), the Netherlands (93.7) and Japan (91.6) topped the list, followed by Germany (91.3) and France (83.3). These countries owe their high scores to a consistently balanced performance across the four dimensions of the 2IPD.  They have all managed to build reliable, well-connected, relevant and resilient postal services.

However, the situation of the top 5 does not reflect the global trend for the sector, which is being affected by growing gaps in postal development between and within regions. Moreover, comparable benchmarks tend to indicate that Posts are underperforming in comparison with other elements of national infrastructure.

In spite of these challenges, within the various regions, some countries have achieved encouraging results, for example, Poland (score of 78.3, ranked 6^th worldwide), Singapore (score of 78.2, ranked 7th), Nigeria (score of 50.9, ranked 51st), Brazil (score of 54.0, ranked 44th), Tunisia (score of 51.9, ranked 49^th).

The vision adopted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for its 2017–2020 strategy is fully geared towards postal development, seeking to ensure that the postal sector is seen as an enabler of inclusive development and an essential component of the global economy. In the same vein, the mission of the

organization, enshrined in its Constitution, stipulates that the UPU is to “stimulate the lasting development of efficient and accessible universal postal services of quality in order to facilitate communication between the inhabitants of the world”.

The postal sector continues to be a key vehicle of socio-economic development. This should encourage

governments, regulators and any other players with a stake in the sector to step up investments and draft level-playing-field regulations and policies to boost this critical element of national infrastructure.

Source: BusinessGhana with information from the UPU 2IPD 2018 Report