Ireland
Commitment to Development Index 2012
Ireland
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 Ireland’s performance on the 2012 CDI. For more details, visit cgdev.org/cdi.
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
Overall Score
Ireland’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 17 n Overall score 2012: 5.1 n Change since 2003: +0.0 (using 2012 methodology) Ireland ranks 17 overall in 2012. Ireland’s strongest contributions to the development of poor countries come through its high quality foreign aid program, low emissions growth compared to GDP growth, and its contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations. But as one of only three countries without a national political risk insurance agency, Ireland ranks near the bottom of the investment component. The Irish government also scores poorly with regard to its low level of support for technology development and dissemination, substantial agricultural subsidies, and policies that inhibit migrants from developing countries.
Ireland’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment
th
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
0
4
8
12
16
Ireland 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 “tiedâ€? 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: 7.5 n Rank: 6
Investment
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: 2.9 n Rank: 26 Weaknesses
Strengths - No tied or partially tied aid (rank: 1) - Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank by share of GDP: 1) - Large share of aid to poor and relatively well-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 2) - Relatively high net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.52%; rank: 9)
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: 5.2 n Rank: 23
- Does not provide political risk insurance through a national agency - Lacks policies to fully prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Has not yet completed Phase 3 of the OECD Convention on Bribery - Weak participation and leadership in extractive industry transparency initiatives
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: 2.8 n Rank: 21 Weaknesses
Strengths - Low tariffs on textiles (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3) - Low tariffs on apparel (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3) - High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (10.1% of GDP per capita; rank: 4)
Weaknesses
- Small number of immigrants from developing countries entering Ireland (rank by share of population: 23) - Small share of foreign students from developing countries (39%; rank: 20) - Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Ireland (rank by share of population: 16) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals
- High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff of 17.2% of the value of imports; rank: 27)
Center for Global Development
Ireland 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: 6.5 n Rank: 15
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: 3.9 n Rank: 23
Strengths - Low fossil fuel production rate per capita (0.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 1) - GDP growth exceeded growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past decade (average annual GHG growth rate/GDP, -3.9%; rank: 6)
Weaknesses - Poor compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under multilateral environmental agreements relating to biodiversity (rank: 26) - High fishing subsidies ($1.46 per person; rank: 22)
Strengths - No government R&D expenditure on defense (rank: 1)
Weaknesses - Low overall government expenditure on R&D (rank by share of GDP: 22) - Allows patents on plant and animal varieties - Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
For More
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.
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.
n Score: 6.9 n Rank: 4 Strengths - Significant financial and personnel contributions to UN peacekeeping operations over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 3) - Few arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 6) - Participates in major international security treaties and regimes
Weaknesses - Low personnel contributions to non-UN, internationally-sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 20)
Center for Global Development
Ireland 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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