Global Development report 2006 - 2 comments

Via Owen, and Andrew, the Center for Global Development's 2006 on the commitment of wealthy countries to global development was released a couple of days ago.

Scores have been calculated for 21 countries across seven components that all contribute to the fight against global poverty - the absolute level of financial aid being only one (very important) part.

Results for the UK are below - the leftmost bar in each category shows scores for 2003, while the rightmost shows 2006. Look out for other countries' scores on the site - they range from the impressive to the dreadful (sorry, that's not the USA).



Owen takes up the story:

A striking finding of the 2006 survey is that, despite the rhetoric that 2005 would be the Year of Development, there has been little progress across the range of policies that affect prospects in poor countries. Indeed, Netherlands has moved into first place because Danish aid has been cut despite strong economic growth.

The UK comes top in two of the seven components [Investment and Environment], thanks to policies that promote investment in poor countries, and an outstanding environmental record. The aid program, managed by DFID (disclosure: my past and future employer), is internationally respected, though less generous relative to national income than the Scandinavian countries. Overall, however, the UK finishes in the bottom half of the league table, weighed down by extensive arms sales to undemocratic governments [Security] and tight immigration policies [Migration].

Read the rest.

Also related are a couple of my favourite Stumbling and Mumbling posts of the past week or so: this on immigration (contra the irrepressible Polly), and this on markets, globalisation, and the 'invisible hand'.