The Commitment to Development Index
Ranking countries on their global development policies
About the Index
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 40 of the world’s most powerful countries on their dedication to policies that affect more than 5 billion people living in poorer nations, scoring countries relative to their size & economic weight.

Explore the dashboard

 

CDI Structure

The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 40 of the world’s most powerful countries on policies that affect more than five billion people living in poorer nations. Because development is about more than foreign aid, the CDI covers eight distinct policy areas: Development Finance, Investment, Migration, Trade, Environment, Health, Security, and Technology. The CDI not only help citizens understand how their country’s policies help or harm global development; the rankings are also used by governments to identify key areas for improvement and compare themselves to their peers. Learn more by exploring the methodology.

Why Does Commitment to Development Matter?

In our integrated world, decisions made by the richest countries about their own policies and behaviour have repercussions for people in lower-income countries. At the same time, greater prosperity and security in poorer countries benefits the whole world. Global development creates new economic opportunities, increases innovation, and helps reduce risks posed by public health, security, and economic crises. The CDI looks at 40 of the world’s most powerful countries with and celebrates those with policies that benefit not only themselves, but also the development of others and the global common good.

 

 

 

 

 

Blogs

  • CDI 2021: Assessing Global Environmental Leadership
    Today, we publish the 2021 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which tracks powerful countries’ policy efforts on development a...
  • Introducing the Commitment to Development Index 2021
    Today we launch the Commitment to Development Index 2021 measuring the policy efforts of 40 major economies in supporting developm...
  • Does Focus Follow Money in National Security?
    If your toolbox is overflowing with precision guided munitions, the problems you will focus on are ones that (arguably) can be sol...
  • Measuring the Risk of Arms Exports & Commitment to Development
    Just weeks into his presidency, Joe Biden announced a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This ...
  • Gender and the CDI
    Earlier this year, we launched the Commitment to Development Index (CDI), after commissioning a holistic two-year review to reasse...
  • How Robust Is the CDI to Changes in Weights?
    Each year, the Center for Global Development produces the Commitment to Development Index, evaluating countries across a range of ...
  • Introducing the Commitment to Development Index 2020
    The CDI measures the policy effort of countries—relative to their size—in how they support development in other countries. How did...
  • China’s Commitment to Development
    China’s policy commitment to development ranks 35th of the 40 countries in the CDI. Some of the results may seem counterintui...
  • Assessing Commitment to Global Health
    With COVID-19 set to lead to a major upsurge in those living in extreme poverty and the wider developing world, the new CDI provid...
  • Commitment to Development 2020
    Ahead of the publication of the next Commitment to Development Index this spring, Lee Robinson and Ian Mitchell outline the findin...
  • Turkey’s Refugee Policy and Its Commitment to Development
    Migration is a crucial and cross-cutting topic within development—and one of the  seven current components in our annua...
  • Looking Beyond Aid with Ian Mitchell – CGD Podcast
    CGD's Ian Mitchell on why looking beyond aid is important for development and how the CDI measures and weighs various developm...
  • Policies, Outcomes, and Populism: The Integration of Migrants in Sweden
    Sweden doesn’t seem to be immune to the Europe-wide trend of hostility to migration, as a significant 17.5 percent of t...
  • Advanced Economies and Poverty-Weighted Trade Tariffs
    As the global trade powerhouses lurch towards protectionism, CGD’s Commitment to Development Index, released today, rev...
  • Europe Leads the Way in This Year's CDI
    Today, we published the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) 2018, which ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on how w...

Publications

  • The Commitment to Development Index 2021
    The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 40 of the world’s most powerful countries on policies that affect more than five b...
  • Commitment to Development Index 2020
    The Commitment to Development Index ranks 40 countries on their development policies. How did your country do this year?
  • The Index Ecosystem and the Commitment to Development Index
    The CDI has carved out a fairly specialized niche in the index ecosystem. For 15 years, the Center for Global Development has...
  • Commitment to Development Index 2018
    The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on policies that affect more than five billion...
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world's richest countries on policies that affect more than five billion peopl...
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit poorer nations....
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit poorer nations....
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5...
  • Petr Janský
    In recent years there has been growing recognition of the harm done to development by illicit financial flows, and the role of ric...
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on policies that affect the more than five billion...
  • Toby Ord
    In this essay, Toby Ord explores the moral relevance of cost-effectiveness, a major tool for capturing the relationship between re...
  • This paper provides the background to a series of more detailed studies of the policies of European countries as they relate to CG...
  • The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5...

Contact

For more information, contact csantos@cgdev.org

Contact

For more information, contact csantos@cgdev.org

Experts

Beata Cichocka
Beata Cichocka joined CGD’s European Development Policy and Leadership Programme in November 2019. Her main areas of interest include the future of development agencies, the role o...
Ian Mitchell
Ian Mitchell is a senior fellow and the director of development cooperation in Europe at the Center for Global Development. He leads CGD’s work in Europe on how governments’ polici...
Lee Robinson
Lee Robinson was a Research Associate at the Center for Global Development’s Europe office, working on various strands of the Climate Programme and with Ian Mitchell on the Commitm...

Experts

  • Beata Cichocka
    Beata Cichocka joined CGD’s European Development Policy and Leadership Programme in November 2019. Her main areas of interest include the future of development agencies, the role o...
  • Ian Mitchell
    Ian Mitchell is a senior fellow and the director of development cooperation in Europe at the Center for Global Development. He leads CGD’s work in Europe on how governments’ polici...
  • Lee Robinson
    Lee Robinson was a Research Associate at the Center for Global Development’s Europe office, working on various strands of the Climate Programme and with Ian Mitchell on the Commitm...

Acknowledgments

For more information, visit CGD's How We're Funded page.
Support for this initiative comes from the Gates Foundation.