Belgium

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.

• Score: 7.0
• Rank: 7

• High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.52%; rank: 7)
• Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank by share of GDP: 6)
• Small share of tied or partially tied aid (4.0%; rank: 7)

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.

• Score: 6.3
• Rank: 13

• Low tariffs on textiles (6.0% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
• Low tariffs on apparel (6.0% of the value of imports; rank: 3)

• High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 13.1% of the value of imports; rank: 18)

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 and productive investment in developing countries.

• Score: 5.6
• Rank: 9

• Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad

• Does not provide assistance in identifying direct investment opportunities
• Does not let investors enjoy developing country tax incentives

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 trasfer of skills when the immigrants return.

• Score: 4.0
• Rank: 14

• Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Belgium (rank by share of population: 16)
• Small share of foreign students from developing countries (38%; rank: 21)
• Tuition for foreign students higher than for nationals

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.

• Score: 7.6
• Rank: 4

• Low fossil fuel production rate per capita (0.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 1)
• High gas taxes ($1.15 per liter; rank: 6)
• Decrease in greenhouse gas emissions rate in 1999–2009 (average annual growth rate/ GDP, –3.0%; rank: 8)

• High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (11.8 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 16)

Security

Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, rewards military protection of global sea lanes, and penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.

• Score: 1.4
• Rank: 22

• High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 20)
• Small financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 18)

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 penelizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.

• Score: 4.7
• Rank: 18

• Low share of government R&D expenditure on defense (0.0%; rank: 4)

• Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
• Pushed to incorporate into bilateral free trade agreements "TRIPS-Plus" measures that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries