Commitment to development index

Source of Graph: Center for Global Development

According to the Economist:

America ranks 17th out of 22 rich countries in its commitment to fostering prosperity in the developing world, according to the Center for Global Development, a think-tank in Washington, DC. The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark take the top four spots thanks to the generosity of their foreign aid relative to the size of their economies. But aid is not all that matters. Countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada score well by dint of good trade and security policies. Environmental, technology and migration policies count too. America’s relatively low trade barriers, the generosity of its citizens’ private aid flows, and policies promoting pro-poor technologies save it from last place.

Comment: Note that lower ranked countries Greece and South Korea are much poorer than the United States and would be expected to be less able to help other nations to develop. Japan is suffering from a long period with a weak economy. The U.S. reached this dismal level only after the Bush administration actually increased foreign aid.

However, the Economist is right that trade may be more important to developing nations than foreign assistance.

The problem is the coming year, when the global recession will be expected to hit the United States, other donors and the developing nations simultaneously. The result will be hunger and disease in the poorest nations, and the need for development assistance greater than ever. JAD