Norway
Commitment to Development Index 2012
Norway
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 Norway’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
Norway’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 2 n Overall score 2012: 6.6 n Change since 2003: +0.7 (using 2012 methodology) Norway ranks 2 overall in 2012. Norway ranks in the top five on the aid, migration, and security components. It gives a large amount of foreign aid as a share of its income, promotes productive investment in poor countries, admits a large number of legal immigrants from developing countries, and contributes significant finance and personnel to internationally sanctioned security operations. But Norway also produces the largest amount of fossil fuels per person of any CDI country, bringing down its score on the environment component. The Norwegian government also employs some of the most restrictive trade barriers against poor countries, finishing near the bottom of the trade component.
Norway’s CDI Performance, 2003–12
2003
Aid 2012
Trade Investment
nd
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
-4
0
4
8
12
Norway 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: 13.0 n Rank: 2
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: 6 Strengths
Strengths - High net aid volume as a share of the economy (1.1%; rank: 1) - No tied or partially tied aid (rank: 1)
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: 1.1 n Rank: 25
- Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Displays leadership in encouraging least developed countries to join the EITI and is one of the contributors to the World Bank Special Trust Fund to assist in its implementation - No restrictions on pension fund investment in emerging markets and official support for outflows of portfolio investment
Weaknesses - Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery - Political risk insurance also given to inefficient, import-substituting projects
Migration
Strengths - Low barriers against textiles (3.6% of the value of imports; rank: 1) - Low barriers against apparel (1.8% of the value of imports; rank: 1)
Weaknesses - High tariffs on agricultural products (86.3% of the value of imports; rank: 25) - High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff of 13.2% of the value of imports; rank: 21) - Low level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (7.6% of GDP per capita; rank: 24)
Center for Global Development
Investment
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: 9.9 n Rank: 2 Strengths - Large number of immigrants from developing countries entering Norway (rank by share of population: 2) - Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 2) - Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Norway (rank by share of population: 8) - Free tuition for foreign students and for nationals
Norway 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: 3.2 n Rank: 26
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: 5.7 n Rank: 9
Strengths - GDP growth exceeded growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past decade (average annual GHG growth rate/GDP, -5.9; rank: 1) - Low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (4.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 2)
Weaknesses - High fossil fuel production rate per capita (109.9 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank 27) - High fishing subsidies ($10.80 per person; rank: 27) - High consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 22) - Low gas taxes ($0.85 per liter; rank: 19)
Security
Strengths - High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 6) - Provides patent exceptions for research purposes
Weaknesses - Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 21) - Does not revoke unused patents
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.
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: 7.6 n Rank: 2 Strengths - Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 1) - Participates in major international security treaties and regimes
Weaknesses - Relatively small contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Operations budget (rank by share of GDP: 21) - Provides little protection of global sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 17)
Center for Global Development
Norway 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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