People in Nordic countries aren’t just among the happiest — they’re some of the most generous, too, giving a large share of their incomes to international aid efforts and supporting government and business investment in developing countries, according to a new report from the Center for Global Development.
Denmark, Sweden and Finland top this year’s Commitment to Development Index, an annual ranking of 27 of the wealthiest nations in the world by how well their policies help people in developing countries. The index takes seven measures into account — aid, finance, technology, trade, environment, security and migration — adjusting each country’s final score for the size of its gross domestic product.
These “robust, reliable and informative indicators” measure a nation’s commitment to development, says Ian Mitchell, the study’s lead author and the CGD’s European economic and developmental policies expert. It’s important to look at broad policy items, he adds, because countries may score particularly well in general indicators such as aid, and more poorly in others, including environment and technology.
“I think fundamentally, the challenge of our time is how do we get prosperity around the world?” Mitchell says. “With prosperity comes peace, comes collaboration, comes the mutual exchange of ideas and a better economic growth for everyone. So if we can develop the entire world, it will reflect back on us and our own security and prosperity.”
Denmark, the top country for aid and security, gives 0.75 percent of its national income to aid efforts, according to the report, one of the few countries to meet the 0.7 percent target the United Nations first adopted in 1970. Although Norway and Luxembourg give a greater share of their national income to foreign aid — 1.11 and 1 percent, respectively — Denmark placed higher on the index because its aid is more effective.
(The quality of a country’s aid is measured in a separate report by the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution, encompassing the aid program’s efficiency, transparency and how well it fosters institutions and reduces the burden on the developing nation.)
Finland, Denmark and Norway are also the top three countries for finance, measured by government policies that promote transparency and investment in developing countries. Direct investment benefits a developing nation’s infrastructure, transportation, energy and lifts its economy, the report says.
“What you do for international development is more than what you do for aid,” Mitchell says. “These countries do pay close attention to the rankings and use it to inform what they do on policy, and that’s obviously what we want to see from the countries that we assess.”
Most countries improved their scores in technology, trade and environment this year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing climate commitments under the Paris Climate Accord. The U.S. scores 24th for environment, driven in part by its low gasoline taxes and high greenhouse gas emissions, and its withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement could further lower its rank in future years, the report says.
Overall, the U.S. slid three places this year to 23rd, outranked by Central European nations Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, where the average income per person is less than half of that in the U.S. The U.S. scores highest in trade and security, though its ranking is brought down by its poor scores for finance and aid.
Although the U.S. donates more than any other country to foreign aid efforts in absolute terms, it gives just 0.18 percent of its national income to aid, above just five other indexed countries. In 1970, when the U.N. General Assembly passed the 0.7 percent target, Washington said that while it supports the general goals of the resolution, it would not subscribe to specific targets or timetables.
Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning Washington from helping pay women in developing countries for birth control, abortion and family planning education. The Netherlands quickly announced the creation of an international fund to help offset the withdrawal of U.S. funding.
“While the U.S. does put its weight on peacekeeping, it doesn’t do well on other security indicators — it sells arms to poor and undemocratic countries, it doesn’t sign up for a lot of international agreements relative to its peers,” Mitchell says. “Those are three areas — aid, environment and security — where if the U.S. was more serious about its developmental contribution, it could make relatively straightforward positive changes.”
Germany moved up 10 slots in this year’s index, ranking fifth overall. The jump is largely due to its migration policies — Germany has accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in recent years. Its trade ranking also improved: Along with Ireland, Germany imposes the fewest restrictions on services imports, though it is among the bottom for finance and security.
South Korea places last overall in this index, dragged down by its poor aid, environment and security rankings, despite earning the No. 1 slot for its technology. South Korea spends more than 1 percent of its GDP on research and development, contributing to innovations in medicine, sustainable energy and communication platforms that help the developing world. Japan, the only other Asian nation included in the index, similarly ranks 5th for technology but 26th overall.
But how a country scores one year may be completely different from the next, Mitchell says, and there is no single blueprint for success. The index is intended to be a conversation starter among countries on how they can improve their development goals, he says, citing an upcoming presentation on the index’s migration component for the U.N. General Assembly.
“The G-7 countries are the richest and most developed, and they range from France at fourth down to Japan in second to last,” Mitchell says. “So there’s no guide for performance here. I think Germany’s improvement, where it’s accepted so many migrants in the last two years, and increased its aid contribution, it just demonstrates that countries move around on this index.”
Development Assistance from Wealthy Nations
The darker a country is on this map, the higher it ranks in the Commitment to Development Index. Foreign aid data is from 2016 from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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Denmark Most Committed to Helping Developed Nations, Study Finds originally appeared on usnews.com
