How We Measure Commitment to Development

CDI Aim and Impact

The CDI’s main aim is to start a discussion — both within and across governments — about how policies in the areas measured affect development, and to draw attention to what policymakers can do to improve their policies through measuring, scoring, and comparing policy effort relative to country size. The CDI aims to draw attention especially to policies “beyond aid” which have spillovers for the world’s poorest. The purpose of the ranking is to encourage a “race to the top” on development, including on non-finance policy areas.

Past editions of the CDI have been successful in getting governments to think more broadly about policy coherence and development:

• Officials in several governments – including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US – confirmed that they track the CDI as a performance measure , and many have drawn on the CDI as an official performance metric for development policy.
• The CDI is used internationally in OECD Development Assistance Committee peer reviews.
• The CDI has regularly had significant media reach, drawing attention to countries development policies and commitment.

Read about our previous editions in our impact report.