Netherlands
Commitment to Development Index 2012
Netherlands 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 the Netherlands’ 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
Netherlands’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 6 n Overall score 2012: 6.1 n Change since 2003: -0.1 (using 2012 methodology) The Netherlands ranks 6 overall in 2012. The Netherlands places in the top half of CDI countries in all components except for security, due to its arms exports to poor and undemocratic countries. It gives a large amount of aid as a share of its income, and the quality of its aid is high. The Netherlands also has policies that promote productive investment in poor countries and has relatively low barriers to exports. Its scores on the technology components are driven down by intellectual property policies that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries. The Netherlands also has relatively high rates of greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel production per capita.
Netherlands’ CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment
th
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
0
4
8
12
16
Netherlands 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: 9.5 n Rank: 5
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: 6.3 n Rank: 1 Strengths
- High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.76%; rank: 5) - Large share of aid to poor and relatively well-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 5) - Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 5)
- Political risk insurance agency provides wide coverage and screens potential projects for violations of human, labor and environmental rights - Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Particularly active in Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds - Provides official support for outflows of portfolio investment
Weaknesses
Weaknesses
- Moderate share of tied or partially tied aid (12.2%; rank: 13)
- Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery
Strengths
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: 5.9 n Rank: 5
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: 5.5 n Rank: 11
Strengths - Low agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff of 6.8% on the value of imports; rank: 4) - 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)
Strengths - Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 6) - Increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in the Netherlands (rank by share of population: 10)
Weaknesses - Small share of foreign students from developing countries (32.8%; rank: 24) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals
Center for Global Development
Netherlands 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: 6.7 n Rank: 13
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: 5.4 n Rank: 11
Strengths - Low consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 1) - Low tropical timber imports ($7.15 per person; rank: 4)
Weaknesses - High fossil fuel production rates per capita (8.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 22) - High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (12.9 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 20)
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: 3.2 n Rank: 24
Strengths - High government expenditure on R&D (rank by share of GDP: 8) - High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 9)
Weaknesses - Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain - Pushes to extend intellectual property rights in bilateral trade treaties (“TRIPS Plus” measures) that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries - Does not force patent holders to license to meet social needs
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 - Military ships stationed in sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 7) - Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 10)
Weaknesses - High level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 24)
Center for Global Development
Netherlands 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
Independent Research and Practical Ideas for Global Prosperity www.cgdev.org 1800 Massachusetts Ave., NW - Washington DC 20036 Tel: 202.416.4000 - Fax: 202.416.4050