Stockholm (NordSIP) – Three Nordic countries have topped the Center for Global Development think tank’s Commitment to Development Index 2017 report. Denmark ranks top of the 27 richest countries committed helping developing nations with Sweden (#2) and Finland (#3) in hot pursuit, according to the report released last week (September 6), which measures the impact of finance and foreign aid, trade, migration, environmental and technology policies.
“In our integrated world, decisions made by rich countries about their own policies and behaviour have repercussions for people in the developing nations,” said report author Ian Mitchell. “Although only a handful of countries meet the internationally accepted target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid, foreign assistance remains an important source of finance for some of the poorest countries,” he added.
Nordic countries ranked consistently high across the seven components of the CDI, with Denmark’s top ranking resulting from a combination of an overall “generosity” in providing 0.75% of its national income, ranking first on security and aid the past year and featuring in the top three for finance and trade. Norway, for its part, gave an especially generous 1.11% in aid. This was by contrast to, for example, the U.S., which scored poorly across the panoply of finance, environment and aid, contributing 0.18% of its national income, while Germany jumped 10 spots to fifth place due to its migration policies. South Korea was at the bottom of the aggregate list.
A focus of the report, which was co-written by Anita Käppeli and Hauke Hillebrandt, was success in investment and financing for developing countries, where Finland ranked first in finance due to its sustainable support to investment and transparency, with Denmark and Norway in second and third places. The CDI rewards wealthy countries with investment-promotion policies that are good both for investors and the developing country by protecting public policy interests and sustainable development, which is assessed by considering the balance in international investment agreements and using data from the Financial Secrecy Index to recognize those countries with regulations promoting transparency in financial transactions within their jurisdiction and sphere of influence.
Sweden was at the forefront of the environmental category in global climate and biodiversity, with its greenhouse gas emissions the lowest and the biggest annual cut in emissions the past year of all the countries in the index.
Visit the Commitment to Development Index site for full country reports or download the report here.
image: (c) esfera – shutterstock
