Supporting Development in the Pacific: The Pacific Index
Simon Feeny
RMIT University
The Pacific: Paradise Almost Lost?
• Low and highly volatile economic growth– Lowest and most volatile of all developing country regions
• Widespread non-achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
– Most countries will not achieve most MDG targets
– Only two countries will achieve MDG1, of halving income poverty
• Private sector is heavily constrained– Ease of doing business rankings have declined
• Governance challenges remain– Ranked towards the bottom of policy and institution
performance ratings
ODA per capita, 2012
Key Policy Messages
• Aid alone is not enough to address the development challenges faced by the Pacific Island countries
– Note: donors should always strive to make aid more effective, but aid itself is not the core problem - empirical research suggests that Pacific Island country growth over recent decades would be lower in the absence of ODA
• Addressing these challenges requires responses from within the Pacific Island countries
• External support for development in the Pacific Island countries needs to look beyond aid, to other drivers of growth and development
The ADRI-Sustineo Pacific Index
• The Pacific Index is a response to these messages
• Result of a three year collaborative research project between the Alfred Deakin Research Institute and Sustineo Pty. Ltd.
• Prof. Mark McGillivray, Dr Sasi Iamsiraroj, Mr Marc Curran
• Adaptation of the Commitment to Development Index (CDI)
The ADRI-Sustineo Pacific Index
• The Pacific Index assesses rich country (OECD) support for
development in the Pacific
• Seven policies–Aid–Trade–Migration– Investment (finance)–The Environment–Security–Technology
• The Pacific Index provides a league table with an overall composite
score for each rich country as well as a score for each of the seven
drivers
Pacific Index: League Table………
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