Australia
Commitment to Development Index 2012
Australia David Roodman and Julia Clark
The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit poor nations. Looking beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid flows, the CDI measures national policies in seven areas that are important to developing countries: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology. This report reviews Australia’s performance on the 2012 CDI. For more details, visit cgdev.org/cdi.
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Overall Score
Australia’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 15 n Overall score 2012: 5.2 n Change since 2003: + 0.2 (using 2012 methodology) Australia ranks 15 overall in 2012. Australia’s score is driven by its low trade barriers against developing country agricultural exports, leading role in peacekeeping efforts, and policies that promote productive investment in poor countries. On the negative side, Australia has the second highest greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel production rate per person among CDI countries, low government spending on research and development, and among the highest trade barriers against textiles and apparel.
Australia’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment
th
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
0
www.cgdev.org/cdi
4
8
12
16
Australia Country Report
Aid
Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GDP adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively well-governed recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.
n Score: 4.3 n Rank: 12
Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.
n Score: 6.1 n Rank: 4 Strengths
Strengths - Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (0.017% of GDP; rank: 4) - Small share of tied or partially tied aid (2.0%; rank: 6)
Weaknesses - Large share of aid to less poor and worse-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 16) - Low net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.32%; rank: 15)
Trade
International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.
n Score: 7.4 n Rank: 2 Strengths - Low tariffs on agricultural products (0.4% of the value of imports; rank: 2), including no tariffs on rice, wheat, corn or beef. - Low agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 7.7% of the value of imports; rank: 5) - High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (11.3% of GDP per capita; rank: 3)
- Particularly active in Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds, and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) - No loopholes in domestic legislation to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery - Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
Weaknesses - Political risk insurance given to inefficient, import-substituting projects - Does not provide official support for outflows of portfolio investment
Migration
The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return.
n Score: 4.2 n Rank: 18 Strengths - Large share of foreign students from developing countries (89%; rank: 3)
Weaknesses
Weaknesses - High tariffs against apparel (14.2% of the value of imports; rank: 26) - High tariffs against textiles (10.1% of the value of imports; rank: 25)
Center for Global Development
Investment
- Bears small share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 17) - Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering Australia (rank by share of population: 16) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals
Australia Country Report
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Environment
Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources, and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries, and biodiversity.
n Score: 3.8 n Rank: 25
Technology
Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.
n Score: 5.2 n Rank: 13
Strengths - No fishing subsidies (rank: 1)
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Restricts copyrighting of databases - Revokes unused patents - Will force patent holders to license to meet social needs
- High greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel production rate per capita (77.8 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 26) - High tropical timber imports ($17.3 per capita equivalent: rank: 26) - Low gas taxes ($0.34 per liter; rank: 25)
Security
Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, military protection of global sea lanes, and participation in international security treaties. It also penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.
n Score: 5.1 n Rank: 13
Weaknesses - Low government expenditure on R&D (rank by share of GDP: 21) - Allows patents on plant and animal varieties - Allows patents on software programs
For More Visit cgdev.org/cdi for the complete 2012 edition of the Commitment to Development Index. There, you can explore the numbers with our interactive graphing tool, view additional publications and background papers, and dive deeper into the CDI methodology by downloading our data and code.
Strengths - Significant personnel contributions to internationally-sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 2)
Weaknesses - Has not ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) - Relatively small contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Operations budget (rank by share of GDP: 17) - Fails to report arms exports
Center for Global Development
Australia Country Report
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Commitment to Development Index 2012 Country Denmark Norway Sweden Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland New Zealand United Kingdom Portugal Canada Germany Belgium France Spain Australia Ireland Switzerland United States Italy Greece Hungary Slovakia Czech Republic Poland Japan South Korea
Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Aid 11.5 13.0 12.6 13.0 3.1 9.5 6.6 3.3 6.8 3.1 5.0 3.9 6.4 4.2 4.0 4.3 7.5 5.2 3.2 1.3 1.6 0.8 0.8 1.1 0.7 1.6 1.0
Trade 5.3 1.1 5.8 5.3 5.6 5.9 5.8 8.1 5.5 5.6 6.2 5.5 5.5 5.6 5.5 7.4 5.2 1.5 6.7 5.7 5.3 5.4 5.8 5.5 5.6 0.1 -1.3
Investment 4.7 6.1 5.3 4.2 4.8 6.3 5.1 4.3 6.3 5.2 6.1 6.3 5.3 6.1 5.9 6.1 2.9 4.4 5.0 5.4 4.0 3.6 2.9 3.9 4.1 5.2 5.6
Migration 6.2 9.9 7.8 6.8 11.7 5.5 4.4 6.4 4.7 4.0 7.0 6.9 5.0 4.0 5.4 4.2 2.8 8.6 5.2 4.7 6.4 1.7 0.6 1.3 0.6 1.9 1.3
Environment 6.8 3.2 7.3 5.5 6.2 6.7 7.4 6.2 7.2 7.2 2.5 6.9 7.0 6.9 6.4 3.8 6.5 5.8 4.3 6.7 5.9 7.9 8.3 7.2 7.4 4.5 4.2
Security 7.7 7.6 1.2 5.0 6.1 3.2 6.6 7.3 5.4 6.0 5.7 3.7 3.6 3.7 3.4 5.1 6.9 4.4 4.6 5.0 5.7 5.4 5.5 1.6 3.8 4.5 1.4
Technology 6.6 5.7 4.7 4.2 5.7 5.4 5.9 4.8 4.3 7.4 5.5 5.0 4.6 6.6 5.8 5.2 3.9 4.8 4.9 4.2 2.8 3.4 2.6 5.3 2.7 6.1 7.0
Overall Score 7.0 6.6 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.8 4.7 4.5 4.0 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.4 2.7
Change since 2003 -0.2 +0.7 -0.3 n/a +0.7 -0.1 +0.1 0.0 +0.7 +1.1 +0.3 +0.5 +0.5 +1.0 +0.7 +0.2 0.0 +0.2 +0.8 +0.7 +0.7 n/a n/a n/a n/a +1.3 n/a
The above table lists scores for each of the 27 CDI-ranked countries across seven policy areas. A country’s overall performance is the average of its seven component scores, each of which are scaled so that an average score in 2012 equals 5.0. The final column shows the change in each country’s overall score since the CDI began in 2003 (using 2012 methodology).
About The CDI The Commitment to Development Index has been compiled each year since 2003 by the Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent think tank that works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. CGD senior fellow David Roodman is the chief architect of the CDI, and collaborators have included William R. Cline on trade; Theodore H. Moran on investment; Jeanne Batalova, Kimberly A. Hamilton, and Elizabeth Grieco on migration; Amy Cassara and Daniel Prager on environment; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque, Mark Stoker and Jason Alderwick on security, and Keith Maskus and Walter Park on technology. The Index is supported by the CDI Consortium.
Center for Global Development
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