Measuring Rich Countries’ Commitment to Development

In 2003, CGD introduced the first metric to gauge countries’ policies across seven policy areas important for development: aid, trade, finance, migration, security, technology, and climate. Now produced by CGD Europe, the annual Commitment to Development Index has become a valuable tool for policymakers around the world. Finland and the Netherlands use the CDI as an official performance metric for their development policy, and the UK’s Department for International Development lists the index as a measure of overall Whitehall policy coherence.

A senior USAID official stated that the Obama White House, “views the CDI as a key metric by which to assess over time the results of President Obama's anticipated global development policy.” Among the direct policy impacts of the 2014 Commitment to Development Index is a Dutch parliamentary inquiry into the limitations of Netherland’s intellectual property rights regime.