Commitment to Development Index 2013
Overall Scores
Why does the CDI matter?
Denmark
6.8
Sweden
6.6
Norway
1
Rich-country policies affect poverty.
2
Development policy is about more than aid.
3
Measurement is important.
6.2
Luxembourg
6.0
Netherlands
5.9
Finland
5.9
Ireland
5.8
United Kingdom
5.8
New Zealand
5.7
Belgium
5.5
Austria
5.5
Australia
5.3
Portugal
5.2
Germany
5.2
Canada
5.2
Spain
5.1
France
5.0
Italy
4.7
Aid
Trade
Finance
United States
4.6
Migration
Switzerland
4.6
Environment
Greece
4.3
Hungary
4.2
Poland
4.0
Slovakia
3.9
Czech Republic
3.9
Japan
3.3
South Korea
3.3
Aid is important, but trade, migration, finance,
environmental, security, and technology policies
influence development too.
Measuring policies helps us know where we stand and
what can be improved. Through ranking we can identify
strengths and weaknesses, and learn from the best.
4
Global institutions matter.
5
Improvement is possible.
Security
Technology
Scores on each component are scaled
so that an average score in 2012, the
reference year, equals 5.0. Final scores are
the average of those for each component.
Instead of highlighting what developing countries can
do to foster poverty alleviation and economic growth, the
Index focuses on what rich countries do to help or hinder
development abroad.
Because there are global challenges that no nation can
handle alone, the CDI recognizes countries that deliver
aid through multilateral arrangements, sign global environmental agreements, and participate in internationally
sanctioned security operations.
Almost all countries score below average in at least one
area, and most are below average in at least three. Simply
spreading knowledge about what works would have huge
benefits.
Commitment to Development Index 2013
Ranking the Rich:
The 2013 Commitment to Development Index
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on
policies that affect the more than five billion people living in poorer nations. The CDI
goes beyond measures of foreign aid to quantify performance in seven areas:
• Quality and quantity of foreign aid
• Openness to trade
• Policies that encourage investment and
financial transparency
• Openness to migration
• Environmental policies
• Promotion of international security
• Support for technology creation and transfer
The Center for Global Development
releases the Commitment to
Development Index annually with
support from the donor governments
in the CDI Consortium.
The Index gives credit for generous and selective aid giving, tax breaks for private
giving, incentives for foreign direct investment and financial transparency, open
immigration policies, robust support for technological research and development, and
contributions to global security. Scores are reduced for financial assistance to poorly
governed regimes, barriers to imports from developing countries, and policies that harm
shared environmental resources.
The Index is intended to educate and inspire the
public and policymakers about how much more
they could do to help the global poor, to spark
debate about the effects of rich-country policies
on developing countries, and to encourage
research about how to best measure them. By
ranking rich countries’ policy efforts, the Index
hopes to inspire a race to the top—motivating
advocacy inside and out of government for more
development-friendly policies.
cgdev.org/cdi