Commitment to Development Index

Commitment to Development Index (CDI) is a measurement tool which tries to assess the development friendliness of 21 rich country policies in seven different fields. These fields are; - Aid (The Index looks at both the quality and the quantity of foreign aid)

- Trade (The Index looks at the openness of rich countries to developing country exports, especially in sectors that these developing countries are competitive)

- Investment(The Index looks at the policy incentives in rich countries which facilitate investment in and capital flow to developing countries)

- Migration (The Index looks at the openness of rich countries to developing country workers, especially to unskilled labor)

- Environment (The Index looks at the policies that are in place to protect the ecological balance while not harming the economic growth)

- Security (The Index looks at how much these countries contribute to the global stability)

- Technology (The Index looks at the policies that encourages the transfer of technology and dissemination of ideas without curbing the creation of techonology).

Experts in the Center for Global Development certainly knows that no matter how elaborate the calculations might be, trying to reduce the measurement of development friendliness to a single digit number is not an absolute measurement. However, the Index is an excellent communications tool, and it enables researchers in the field of development to bring up these multi faceted development issues to the forefront of the global political agenda.

On Wednesday, the 10th of October, CDI 2007 scores are revealed and the artichect of the Index, David Roodman, presented the latest results at an event which was organized by the U.K. Department for International Development, the All Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

The latest results are available on the Center for Global Development website.