Gauging generosity.

Judged by their rhetoric, rich countries are falling over themselves to help the world's poorest. The current multilateral round of trade negotiations is called the Doha Development Round, because it is meant specifically to help poor countries. France's to-do list includes a moratorium on subsidies on exports to Africa, trade concessions and new efforts to stabilise commodity prices. George Bush, who in 2002 proposed a 50% increase in America's aid budget over three years, this year offered to triple spending to combat AIDS in Africa. Promises aside, which rich countries actually have policies that help the poor? The traditional gauge of a country's commitment to development is foreign aid. Total aid flows rose in 2002, by 4.8% after inflation. America is the biggest donor in absolute terms, but the stingiest relative to the size of its economy, spending only 0.12% of its GDP. A new index drawn up by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), a Washington think-tank, with Foreign Policy magazine, attempts to rank 21 rich countries by averaging their scores in six development-related policies: aid, trade, the environment, migration, investment and peacekeeping. America scores well on trade but badly on everything else, and so is ranked second-bottom, above only Japan.