Switzerland
Commitment to Development Index 2012
Switzerland 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 Switzerland’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
Switzerland’s 2012 CDI performance n Overall rank 2012: 18 n Overall score 2012: 5.0 n Change since 2003: +0.2 (using 2012 methodology) Switzerland ranks 18 overall in 2012. Switzerland admits many migrants and refugees from developing countries and the quality of its foreign aid is relatively strong. But these contributions to development are offset by Switzerland’s poor performance on other CDI components. Switzerland is one of the smallest contributors to international peacekeeping operations. It also has some of the highest barriers to exports from developing countries, especially agricultural goods, provides little support for research and development, and has poor investment practices from the perspective of developing countries; Switzerland is one of only three CDI countries without a national political risk insurance agency.
Switzerland’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003
Aid
2012
Trade Investment
th
www.cgdev.org/cdi
Migration Environment Security Technology Overall
-4
0
4
8
12
Switzerland 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: 5.2 n Rank: 10
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: 4.4 n Rank: 19 Strengths
Strengths - Prevents project proliferation; large average project size (rank: 3) - Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 6) - Large share of aid to poor and relatively well-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 9)
Weaknesses - Large share of tied or partially tied aid (17.5%; 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: 1.5 n Rank: 24
- Active participation and leadership in extractive industries transparency initiatives, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds - Does not impose restrictions on pension fund investments in emerging markets
Weaknesses - Does not provide political risk insurance through a national agency - Does not allow domestic investors to take full advantage of developing country tax incentives - Does not provide 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: 8.6 n Rank: 3
Strengths - Low barriers against apparel (5.1% of the value of imports; rank: 2)
Weaknesses - High tariffs on agricultural products (64.9% of the value of imports; rank: 24) - High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff of 13.3% of the value of imports; rank: 22) - High tariffs on textiles (34.1% of the value of imports; rank: 27) - Low level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (6.6% of GDP per capita; rank: 25)
Strengths - Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 1) - Large number of immigrants from developing countries entering Switzerland (rank by share of population: 9) - Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants living in Switzerland (rank by share of population: 5)
Weaknesses - Small share of foreign students from developing countries (35.4%; rank: 21) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals
Center for Global Development
Switzerland 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: 5.8 n Rank: 20
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: 4.8 n Rank: 16
Strengths - No fossil fuel production (0.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 1) - Low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (7.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 5) - No fishing subsidies (rank: 1)
Strengths - Small share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 9) - Provides patent exceptions for research purposes
Weaknesses
Weaknesses - GDP growth exceeded growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past decade (average annual GHG growth rate/GDP, -1.82; rank: 20) - Low gas taxes ($0.58 per liter; rank: 23) - Poor compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under multilateral environmental agreements relating to biodiversity (rank: 20)
Security
- Low tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 21) - Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
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: 4.4 n Rank: 18 Weaknesses - Small financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 20) - Arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 17) - Has not ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM)
Center for Global Development
Switzerland 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.
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