|
Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
|
|
|
|
Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
|
|
Gore Urges End to U.S. Fossil Fuel Power in Ten Years–Here’s How to Get America’s Working Families’ SupportJuly 21, 2008By Administrator in Climate Change, EnvironmentIn a landmark speech last week that deserved more attention than it received from the mainstream media, former U.S. vice president and Nobel Prize laureate Al Gore challenged the United States to produce 100% of its electricity from carbon-free renewable energy within 10 years. To help low-income and working families cope with the cost of the transition, Gore suggested cutting payroll taxes and making up the difference with CO2 taxes. Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), floated a similar idea earlier this month in a Washington Post op-ed. Citing recent CBO research, Orszag suggested that a direct payment system could offset increased energy costs and actually make lower-income households “financially better off because the rebate would be larger than the average increase in their spending on energy-intensive goods.” Comment »House Hearing to put World Bank Clean Tech Fund in the SpotlightJune 3, 2008By Administrator in Global Development, Global Warming, Migration and Labor Mobility, World Bank, World Bank Clean Technology Fund Tags: Clean Technology Fund, On the Hill, World BankLast week representatives of 40 countries meeting in Potsdam, Germany endorsed the World Bank’s proposal for a multi-billion-dollar Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to help developing countries meet their surging energy needs without accelerating climate change. The proposal is set to go to the Bank’s board in early July and senior bank officials say that they hope to raise at least $5.5 billion dollars for the CTF by the end of the year. Done deal? Perhaps not. Although President Bush has pushed the idea as an alternative to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases and pledged $2 billion as an initial three-year contribution, the U.S. Congress has yet to consider the project. A House Financial Services Committee hearing on the CTF this week is expected to focus on how exactly the money would be spent. Will it be used to help drive down the price of zero-carbon renewable energy, such as solar thermal power? Or does the bank propose to use it as merely another source of cash for business as usual, including such high-emission projects as coal-fired power? Comment »Be Careful What You Wish for: Fighting Corruption Is Good, But Not If It Means Stopping Development AssistanceMay 15, 2008By Administrator in Corruption, Governance/Democracy, United Nations, World Bank Tags: Corruption, Governance/Democracy, World BankSenators Lugar and Bayh are again on the anticorruption warpath. Yesterday they issued a press release calling for “a Government Accounting Office (GAO) probe of the World Bank’s anticorruption efforts.” They want to make sure that the U.S.’s $950 million contribution to the International Development Association is not being “misspent and enriching corrupt foreign regimes.” Certainly sounds reasonable, but is this really the right focus for a review of World Bank operations? In the chapter I wrote (along with Ted Moran) for The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President, a forthcoming CGD publication, I argue that it is not. I make three points in the chapter that bear on the Lugar-Bayh proposal. Comment »The Other Surge: A Frontline View of Development in IraqApril 9, 2008By Administrator in Security and Development Tags: Security and Development
I have just returned from a remarkable three-week visit to Iraq, remarkable because I was privileged to see more of Iraq than all but a handful of visitors have been able to see. I was part of a team brought together by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to take a fresh look at Iraq’s development efforts, most especially to see what more could be done that would support recent security gains by creating jobs and improving services. 4 Comments »Giving Suharto His DueJanuary 29, 2008By Administrator in Asia, Corruption, Global Education, Governance/Democracy, Regions Tags: Corruption, Governance/Democracy, RegionsI was of two minds as to whether or not to join in the analysis of Suharto’s legacy, but I decided that I cannot let stand some of what I have read about Suharto, Indonesia’s strongman president for 31 years, who died on Sunday at the age of 86. For those who don’t know me: I was the World Bank’s country director in Jakarta from 1994 to 1999. I was present during Indonesia’s financial crisis and when Suharto was forced out of office in May, 1998. I can’t say that Suharto and I were close, but I met him many times, and, to the extent that any outsider can ever really know a Javanese, I believe I knew something of what made him tick. 3 Comments »High Level Panel on Reform of the African Development Bank Gets It Mostly Right — But Falters on Executive BoardJanuary 22, 2008By Administrator in Africa, Regions Tags: RegionsToday, the High Level Panel (hereafter the HLP) on the future of the African Development Bank (AfDB), chaired by Joachim Chissano and Paul Martin, released its report, Investing in Africa’s Future: The ADB in the 21st Century. As regular visitors to this website will know, CGD has also issued a report on the future of the AfDB, Building Africa’s Development Bank (9/7/2006), the output of a working group process that Todd Moss managed and I chaired. I’m puzzled that the HLP report does not mention CGD’s earlier contribution to this debate, since I’ve been told on good authority that they found it useful. Be that as it may, there are some interesting differences between the two reports — as well as agreement on most of the most important of the recommendations. 1 Comment »Folsom’s Departure Creates Opening to Fix The World Bank Fight Against CorruptionJanuary 17, 2008By Administrator in Asia, Corruption, Global Education, Governance/Democracy, World Bank Tags: Corruption, Governance/Democracy, World BankSuzanne Rich Folsom, the controversial head of the World Bank’s internal anti-corruption unit, resigned yesterday to return to the private sector. With Ms. Folsom’s departure almost all of Paul Wolfowitz’s inner circle has now left the Bank. I expect that some of the Bank’s critics will cast this turn of events as victory of the bank bureaucracy over the forces of good in a fight for truth, justice, the American way, and, most especially, zero corruption. This would be an unfortunate misrepresentation of reality. 1 Comment »Bring Back Nuhu Ribadu: Nigeria’s Dedicated Corruption FighterJanuary 2, 2008By Administrator in Africa, Corruption, Governance/Democracy, Regions, United Nations Tags: Corruption, Governance/Democracy, Regions
Nuhu Ribadu visited CGD last October, while he was still the executive chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). For an hour and a half he held a room full of hardened development types spellbound. He came across as articulate, professional, extraordinarily committed…and incredibly brave. He talked of taking on Nigeria’s corruption kingpins, of how he was determined to show that no one, no matter how powerful, how well-connected, was above the law. But unlike most of us, Nuhu did more than talk. He acted. As we left the room at the end of his presentation, I remember wondering to a colleague how long Nuhu would last. We now have the answer: as of end 2007, Nuhu Ribadu is no longer the executive chairman of Nigeria’s top anti-corruption body. Comment »A Record IDA Replenishment: Now the Real Work StartsDecember 17, 2007By Administrator in Global Development, World Bank Tags: IDA, Security and Development, World BankLast week was a good week for the world’s poor countries. It was also a good week for multilateralism and for Bob Zoellick, the World Bank’s president. The rich country governments that support the International Development Association or IDA, the World Bank’s concessional window, pledged a record $41.6 billion for IDA’s 15th replenishment, a 30% increase over the 14th replenishment. Even more startling, the UK upped its contribution by a whopping 49% to overtake the US as IDA’s largest contributor. Comment »Reintegrating Child And Adult Soldiers: A Change Of PlansNovember 26, 2007By Administrator in Child Soldiers, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: Child Soldiers
2 Comments »AFRICOM: Can The Military Make Foreign Aid More Effective And Win Hearts And Minds?November 8, 2007By Administrator in Africa, Foreign Aid Reform, Fragile States, Regions, Security and Development, Weak and Fragile States Tags: Foreign Aid Reform, Regions, Security and DevelopmentRobert Kaplan of The Coming Anarchy fame (how scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of the planet, especially Africa) has a new short piece in The Atlantic on the US military’s development of a central Africa Command, or AFRICOM. 3 Comments »Foreign Aid: Diagnosis without DirectionOctober 1, 2007By Administrator in Aid Effectiveness, Foreign Aid Reform, Global Development Tags: accountability, aid architecture, Bill Easterly, Foreign Aid, Innovations in AidIn a recent review of William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, published in the SAIS Review, CGD president Nancy Birdsall applauds Easterly’s diagnosis of the problem with foreign aid: donors favor big, comprehensive, visible projects rather than trying to solve narrow, immediate problems. Easterly proposes a two-fold solution: remodel the entire system to raise accountability and refocus aid toward smaller, specialized programs. Birdsall argues against reinventing the entire aid system, in place of reforming aspects of it to resemble Easterly’s model. Comment »CGD Ideas and the Clinton Global InitiativeSeptember 27, 2007By Administrator in Asia, Climate Change, Environment, Global Education, Global Health, Global Health Policy, Migration, Migration and Labor Mobility
Comment »Grain Prices Are Rising. Blame it on the Middle Class?September 17, 2007By Administrator in Global Development, UncategorizedCan the growth of the middle class lower living standards for those who stay poor? The answer might be yes if people use their increased income to buy more of a good important to the poor, such as food or housing; prices may increase as a result, decreasing what the poor can afford to buy. In the case of rising grain prices, which had previously been in decline for decades, demand for biofuels has gotten most of the rap; but a recent Newsweek article, “Blame it on Biofuels”, suggested the growing middle class in emerging markets like China may be a more important reason:
Comment »Bill Easterly and DevelopmentAugust 13, 2007By Administrator in Foreign Aid Reform Tags: Foreign Aid ReformBill Easterly, in a recent Foreign Policy article, The Ideology of Development (subscription required), writes ominously that “a dark ideological specter in haunting the world,” one in which “unelected outsiders imposing rigid doctrines on the xenophobic unwilling” and “favors collective goals such as national poverty reduction, national economic growth, and the global Millennium Development Goals, over the aspirations of individuals.” He concludes that “Development ideology has a dismal record of helping any country actually develop.” And finally that, “the only ‘answer’ to poverty reduction is freedom from being told the answer.” Comment »Al Harberger, Labor, and Capital in Latin America: Did the Washington Consensus have it right?August 13, 2007By Administrator in Global Development, Latin America, Microfinance, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: MicrofinanceArnold “Al” Harberger came to Washington and to CGD on Friday. For those readers who don’t know, Al is, among other things, known as the father of the “Chicago Boys” — young economists from Chile and elsewhere in Latin America who trained at the University of Chicago in the 1970s and returned to lead the reform of their countries’ economies. Al is also a long-time advisor to governments around the world, especially in Latin America, where he is universally known as “Alito,” and a teacher in all the best economic departments. Harberger is also a professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and chief economist at USAID. 3 Comments »Phase Zero: The Pentagon’s latest big ideaJuly 20, 2007By Administrator in Africa, Aid Effectiveness, Fragile States, Global Health, Regions, Security and Development, U.S. Foreign Aid Reform, Weak and Fragile States Tags: Regions, Security and DevelopmentA new term has entered the national security lexicon, courtesy of the Pentagon. It’s “Phase Zero.” And it has some potentially troubling implications for U.S. foreign and development policy, particularly in Africa. Unfortunately, the concept isn’t getting the attention that it deserves. 4 Comments »IMF Announces Process and Profile for New Managing Director–World Bank Looks Stodgy By ComparisonJuly 16, 2007By Administrator in Debt Relief, International Monetary Fund, World Bank Tags: World BankLast Friday the IMF board announced that it would accept nominations to replace Rodrigo de Rato as the next Managing Director until August 31, a first and essential step in opening up the process of selecting the IMF leader. The board also announced the skills and qualities it seeks in the next Managing Director:
3 Comments »Macroeconomics and the MDGsJuly 6, 2007By Administrator in Debt Relief, International Monetary Fund, Millennium Development Goals Tags: Corruption, Millennium Development GoalsWhile participating in an interesting and thoughtful eDiscussion organized by the UNDP on Securing Fiscal space for the MDGs, I was struck by how much different approaches to the issue-say between the IMF and the UNDP-are driven by different implicit assumptions about the likely effectiveness of additional spending. Whatever you think about the usefulness of the MDGs as the basis for organizing a development strategy (see Michael Clemens’ blog for a skeptical view) , how to manage the macro-fiscal challenges of scaling-up spending to meet social objectives is highly contentious. The IMF role, in particular, has been criticized by many. Comment »More Change on 19th Street: Rodrigo de Rato Leaves the IMFJune 29, 2007By Administrator in Debt Relief, International Monetary FundRodrigo de Rato’s announcement Thursday that he will step down as Managing Director at the IMF following the Fund and World Bank annual meetings in October took almost everyone by surprise (see Washington Post article). The timing was especially puzzling, as the announcement comes just as much of Mr. de Rato’s reform agenda is moving from concept to reality. Mr. de Rato’s aggressive pursuit of reforms at the Fund, both its governance and its substantive focus, has been a pleasant surprise to those who worried about just what he would bring to the IMF when he first took office. (Read more about CGD’s July 2006 event, Renewing the IMF’s Commitment to Low-Income Countries, with Rodrigo de Rato on reforming the IMF’s commitment to low-income countries.) Comment » |
|
|
CENTER FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Third Floor
Washington DC 20036
Tel 202.416.4000 | Fax 202.416.4050
|
|
|
Print
Share
What is a country to do with thousands of young rebel fighters, wives, and children returning from an unpopular war? The question is one that has been faced by dozens of developing countries, and is currently confronting several more. More often than not, the answer has been to provide ex-fighters with goods, cash support, and promises of services, such as vocational training. This approach has been fraught with challenges and controversy. Are such packages the best path to peace and development? Are perpetrators to be rewarded over victims? Are (mostly male) fighters to receive benefits over (mostly female) wives and support staff? Are unconditional cash handouts appropriate for child and adolescent fighters? In a 
Wednesday kicked off the 2007 
The Defense Department (DoD) spends countless hours drafting plans for potential wars. Each plan outlines specific missions and military requirements for discrete phases of war, from the run-up to hostilities (Phase 1), to the onset of military action (Phase 2), to major combat (Phase 3), to “post-conflict” stabilization (Phase 4), and then to the shift to civilian control (Phase 5).
