Italian scores in the Commitment to Development Index, 2009

The Centre for Global Development has recently published the 2009 Index for Commitment to Global Development - CDI. The Index is supposed to assess the overall policy framework of each OECD country under the global/economic development lenses. The aim is to understand which donors policies should be reviewed or replicated in order to foster global development. The index is built on 7 policy areas - such as development, trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology - and it allows cross country comparison.

In 2009 Italy ranks fourth last, improving one position from last year. Thanks to the 2008 increase in aid financial quantity and the numbers of unskilled migrants, Italy could raise its overall score in 2009. Since the index inception, the Italian performance has been very low due its technology, development and migration policies. As for the latter, Italy hosts a limited percentage of unskilled migrant workers and refugees fleeing from humanitarian crises. The Italian aid initiatives are financially inadequate, too fragmented and tied to the purchase of national goods and services. Eventually, Italy neither publicly invests nor encourages private investment in R&D, via tax incentives. As for regions, Italy is deemed to achieve the best results in terms of external policies fostering development in North Africa and Middle East while the Far East seems to be harmed the most.