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DEVELOPMENT: U.S. Presents a Dismal Record

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Oct 10 2007 (IPS) - Just about ten cents in a dollar actually counts within the massive figures of U.S. aid to Iraq, according to the Commitment to Development Index released Wednesday.

The Index, produced annually by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), an independent Washington research and policy organisation, ranks 21 high-income industrialised countries on how well their policies and actions support poor countries&#39 efforts to build prosperity, good government, and security.

The U.S. figures for Iraq are one indicator how actual aid can be so much less than aid figures claim.

"We count U.S. aid to Iraq as only ten cents to a dollar," CGD research fellow David Roodman, who is architect of the CDI, told IPS. "We see aid as not working very well in Iraq." The benefits of aid have been lost due to corruption and mismanagement, Roodman says.

And this level of aid may not last, even in aid figures. "The U.S. put ten billion dollars into Iraq, and at some stage that&#39s going to slow down," he said. "That&#39s probably the largest bilateral aid transfer ever. And that certainly could bring down the overall total."

The figures as they stand are also significantly inflated by debt cancellation, under an assumption that writing off such debt can count as aid given. And the quality of U.S. aid is poor because it "ties a lot of its aid," Roodman said.


The record of the European Commission, the executive wing of the EU, is markedly different. The EC does not tie aid. "And one thing the EC is good at is giving large quantities of money, rather than lots of little, tiny projects," Roodman said.

"We are concerned about project proliferation; in some countries you have thousands of little projects, and there are a lot of issues of coordination and administrative burden. Denmark and the EC are good in this respect. On the low end, Norway tends to proliferate more, so does Germany."

Aid is one of seven factors the CDI takes into account. The others are the environment, trade, investment, migration, security, and technology.

The United States ranks last of 21 rich countries on the environment component. Norway ranks first on the environment component, followed by Ireland, Finland, and the United Kingdom. Spain had the second worst ranking on the environment policy component, followed by Australia and Canada, the CGD report says.

The Netherlands comes in first on the 2007 CDI on the strength of ample aid-giving, falling greenhouse gas emissions, and support for investment in developing countries. Close behind are three more big aid donors, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are among those tying for fifth. Japan remains last.

"Overall standings in the Index were little changed from last year, because countries’ policies and practices towards development tend to change slowly," the report says.

For the index overall, the best performing country is The Netherlands, followed by Denmark. Norway and Sweden are tied in third place. Down the line are Finland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

The section on migration looks at how receptive a country is to accepting migrants for work or study.

"Austria takes first for accepting the most migrants for its size, with Switzerland not far behind," the report says. "At the bottom is Japan, whose population of unskilled workers from developing countries actually shrank during the 1990s.

"The U.S., the great nation of immigrants, scores a surprisingly mediocre 4.7. Why? For its size, its inflow of legal immigrants and refugees is actually low compared to many European nations."

"There is a kind of hypocrisy, that we want your stuff, but not your people," Roodman told IPS.

The report finds that the problem of brain drain may be overblown. "The Philippines where a lot of people train to be nurses in order to go abroad, the side effect of that export of human capital is that the Philippines has the highest number of nurses per capita at home," Roodman said. "Not all the people who train to go abroad actually do go abroad.

"In Africa, no correlation was found between doctors leaving the country and health outcome, like infant mortality."

The publication of the index is a significant marker for developed countries. "Both the Netherlands and Finland now use our index as an official measure of development performance," Roodman said.

"We&#39re not going to change migration policy overnight, or aid and trade policy. We are holding a mirror to rich countries and asking whether they really live up to their ideals. Of course, they don&#39t."

 
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