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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Global Prosperity Wonkcast
The Challenge of Scaling Up Proven Interventions — Justin SandefurApril 10, 2012By Lawrence MacDonald in Africa, Education Tags: Africa, Education
My guest on this week’s Wonkcast is Justin Sandefur, a research fellow at CGD whose recent work has focused on education in Kenya. One study examines the returns of private schooling, while another looks at the effects of contract teachers on student test scores. The results of these studies highlight shortcomings in public education, including failures of accountability and a dense bureaucracy. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Comment »Oil 2 Cash in Iraq — Johnny WestApril 3, 2012By Lawrence MacDonald in Oil Tags: Cash transfers, Iraq, Oil
He tells me that on a recent trip to Libya, while bouncing across the country on half-built dirt roads in the back of a pickup, he reflected on some startling calculations about the country’s oil industry. During the 42 years of Gaddafi rule, the dictator accumulated over $1 trillion in oil rents. At the same time, much of the country remains poor and a startling number of Libyans can neither read nor write. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 1 Comment »CGD in Europe – Owen BarderMarch 27, 2012By Lawrence MacDonald in Global Development, Globalization Tags: Center for Global Development, Globalization
Most Wonkcasts focus on CGD’s research and policy work. This one is different. My guest is Owen Barder and our topic is CGD itself, specifically the effort that Owen is leading to greatly increase the Center’s engagement in Europe. Owen, a CGD senior fellow and director for Europe, previously worked for CGD on our Advance Market Commitment initiative, which led to a $1.5 billion pilot commitment to purchase and ensure delivery of new vaccines to prevent pneumococcal disease. He subsequently spent three years in Ethiopia and recently resumed working for CGD, based in London, to strengthen the Center’s ties with the European development research and policy community. [Note: Owen continues to maintain his own excellent blog, Owen Abroad and to host occasional podcasts, Development Drums; these are also now available on the CGD Website multimedia page.] Podcast: Play in new window | Download Comment »Engagement Amid Austerity: Reorienting the International Affairs Budget — Connie Veillette and John NorrisMarch 20, 2012By Lawrence MacDonald in Aid Effectiveness, Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Tags: Aid Effectiveness
The U.S. political environment has changed significantly since 2007 when President Obama promised to double U.S. foreign assistance. As the 2012 election cycle presses on, cutting the budget and reducing the deficit are on the minds of many. What does this mean for U.S. foreign assistance? My guests on this week’s Wonkcast, Connie Veillette, CGD’s director of the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program, and John Norris, executive director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress (CAP), have a blueprint for making U.S. foreign assistance more focused and effective amid budget austerity. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 2 Comments »“He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard”: Criminality among Indian Politicians– Milian VaishnavMarch 13, 2012By Lawrence MacDonald in Asia, Governance/Democracy Tags: Democracy, India
In the summer of 2008, the Congress-led government of India released five members of Parliament from jail to support the government in fending off a close no-confidence vote. The five politicians – all indicted for or convicted of murder – cleaned up, cast their votes, and returned to jail the next day. The preponderance of suspected criminals among Indian politicians is no secret. In a country where one-of-four members of Parliament is under criminal indictment, anecdotes such as this are not uncommon. My guest on this week’s Wonkcast, CGD post-doctoral fellow Milan Vaishnav, was inspired by this story to study criminality among Indian politicians for his forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation. He reached some surprising conclusions. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 2 Comments » |
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Johnny West is a man of many talents. An expert on oil, civil society, and governance in the Middle East who works as an advisor to the UNDP, he is fluent in Arabic, spent more than two decades in the Middle East as a journalist for Reuters, and has just published a highly readable 
