Commitment to development

Image in public domain from Wikimedia Commons.

Africa is the poorest continent but how committed are wealthy countries to developing countries in Africa? Foreign aid is often used to compare the help given by the developed world but there are other factors as well as aid to take into consideration:

• trade
• investment
• migration
• environment
• security
• technology

David Roodman of the Centre for Global Development compared 21 wealthy nations on all seven factors and created a chart demonstrating the commitment to development.

Interesting points:

• Sweden came out on top because of high levels of aid and commitment to security.
• Ireland came second thanks to high levels of aid and a large peacekeeping force in Liberia.
• Portugal came sixth because of an openness to Africa migrants.
• The UK is strong in investment and security.

In spite of these, all countries could do much more to help development in Africa.

The full report can be downloaded from the Centre for Global Development.