Netherlands

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: 11.5
• Rank: 4

• Very high net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.81%; rank: 4)
• Selectivity: large share of aid to poor and relatively well-governed recipients (rank: 6)
• Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank as a share of GDP: 6)
• Prevents project proliferation; large average project size (rank: 1)

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: 6.6
• Rank: 5

• Low agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff of 7.3% on the value of imports; rank: 4)
• 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)

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.

• Score: 6.0
• Rank: 6

• Provides insurance against political risk for both domestic and foreign firms
• Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
• Participates in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Initiative on blood diamonds
• Provides support for outflows of portfolio investment

• Political risk insurance also given to inefficient, import-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.

• Score: 4.9
• Rank: 9

• Large increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in the Netherlands (rank by share of population: 9)
• Bears large share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 8)

• 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: 7.3
• Rank: 8

• High gas taxes ($1.28 per liter; rank: 2)
• Few tropical wood imports ($9.02 per person; rank: 4)

• High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (12.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 17)
• High fossil fuel production rates per capita (7.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 17)

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: 5.3
• Rank: 8

• Significant financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 6)
• Military ships stationed in sea lanes that are important to international trade (rank by share of GDP: 4)

• High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 17)

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.

• Score: 5.2
• Rank: 13

• High tax subsidy rate to businesses for R&D (rank: 7)
• Small share of government R&D expenditure on defense (0.1%; rank: 10)

• 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