Country_12_UK_EN

United Kingdom

Commitment to Development Index 2012

United Kingdom 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 United Kingdom’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

United Kingdom’s 2012 CDI Performance n Overall rank 2012: 9 n Overall score 2012: 5.7 n Change since 2003: +0.7 (using 2012 methodology) The United Kingdom ranks 9th overall in 2012.

It finishes near the top of the investment and environment components, thanks to policies that promote healthy investment in poor countries and a relatively strong environmental record from the perspective of those countries. Although it makes significant contributions to peacekeeping and humanitarian operations and to the protection of sea lanes important to international trade, the United Kingdom scores near the bottom of the security component because of its significant arms sales to undemocratic governments. British borders are also relatively closed to immigrants from poor countries, and its government policies do little to support the diffusion of technological advances abroad. www.cgdev.org/cdi

United Kingdom’s CDI Performance, 2003–12 2003

Aid

2012

Trade Investment Migration Environment Security Technology Overall

0

4

8

12

16

United Kingdom 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: 6.8 n Rank: 7

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: 2 Strengths

Strengths - High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.57%; rank: 6) - No tied or partially tied aid (rank: 1) - Prevents project proliferation: large average project size (rank: 8)

Weaknesses - Large share of aid to less poor and worse-governed recipients (selectivity rank: 26)

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.

- Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - Active participation and leadership in extractive industries transparency initiatives, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds - Vigorous prosecution of home-country bribe payers

Weaknesses - Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery - Political risk insurance also given to inefficient, i mport-substituting projects

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: 14 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)

n Score: 4.7 n Rank: 16 Strengths

Weaknesses

- Bears share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 10)

- High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 12.2% of the value of imports; rank: 16)

Weaknesses - Small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants living in the United Kingdom (rank by share of population: 19) - Small share of foreign students from developing countries (rank: 17) - Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals

Center for Global Development

United Kingdom 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: 7.2 n Rank: 8

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: 4.3 n Rank: 20

Strengths - Low consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 1) - Low tropical timber imports ($7.15 per capita equivalent; rank: 4) - High gas taxes ($1.22 per liter; rank: 7)

Strengths - High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 10)

Weaknesses

Weaknesses - High fossil fuel production rate per capita (5.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 19)

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.

- Large share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 26) - 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 - Pushes to incorporate into bilateral free trade agreements “TRIPS-Plus� measures that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries

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.

n Score: 5.4 n Rank: 12 Strengths - Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 5) - Military ships stationed in sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 2) - Participates in major international security treaties and regimes

Weaknesses - High level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 22)

Center for Global Development

United Kingdom 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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