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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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 Nancy Birdsall is the Center for Global Development's founding president. Full Bio Follow @nancymbirdsall
Showing posts on the Views from the Center blog. View author posts on: From Zoellick to Kim: Three Seedlings to NourishMay 17, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in The Future of the World Bank, World Bank Tags: International Financial Institutions, World Bank
Jim Kim, the incoming president of the World Bank, has gotten a lot of free (as in unsolicited) advice. I’ve participated happily, indeed eagerly (e.g. here), on the grounds that—to use Robert Zoellick’s apt title in a recent Foreign Affairs article—the world still needs the World Bank, and a better World Bank is better for the world. Some of my advice came in the form of questions about the future of the bank in the light of the global paradigm shift outlined by Zoellick in a sweeping address last year: the rise of China and other dynamic middle-income countries, the spread of social media, the globalization of everything – good (norms on women’s status) and bad (effects of greenhouse gas emissions, global financial and food price volatility). Comment »It’s not an IDA world anymoreMay 17, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in International Financial Institutions, World Bank Tags: IDA, International Financial Institutions
This is a joint post with Christian Meyer. One of the pressing questions for Jim Kim in the years ahead as the World Bank’s new president is what to do as many countries graduate out of IDA, the bank’s fund for grants and concessional loans to the poorest countries. To generate ideas and possible directions for IDA’s business model, CGD has convened a Future of IDA Working Group. The group’s final report with recommendations is due out in early summer, in time for ample discussion prior to the IDA 16 Mid-Term Review this fall. 2 Comments »Liliana Rojas-Suarez: Economist of the YearApril 26, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Economic Development, Latin America Tags: Economic Development, Latin America
Congratulations to our colleague Liliana Rojas-Suarez, named by the Peruvian Chamber of Commerce as economist of the year. Past winners include Hernando de Soto and Julio Velarde of Peru. The annual award recognizes Liliana’s many contributions on financial sector challenges and related development issues in emerging market economies – including this one and her role as Chair of the independent Latin American Committee on Financial Issues (CLAAF, in its Spanish acronym). 3 Comments »CGD and Washington Post to Host Sessions with World Bank President CandidatesApril 2, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in International Financial Institutions, World Bank Tags: International Financial Institutions, World Bank
It matters a lot who runs the World Bank and it matters how the president is selected. So it’s heartening to see the reforms to the World Bank leadership selection process making a difference this time. Multiple candidates have been nominated. Three will be interviewed by the bank’s executive board next week. For the first time since the bank was created in 1944 there is competition. The process is also more open than ever before. The candidates’ names have been disclosed and there is intensive public debate on their relative merits (including a variety of views here at the Center for Global Development). In addition, the candidates are selectively turning to the media to make their case. 25 Comments »World Bank Presidency: José Antonio Ocampo Nomination a Breakthrough, TooMarch 30, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in International Financial Institutions, World Bank Tags: International Financial Institutions, World Bank
Some excellent candidates to head the World Bank and the IMF never get nominated because they lack the support of their own country—usually because the party they are affiliated with is not in power at the critical moment. Consider, for example, Ernesto Zedillo, a former president of Mexico who now heads the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He led a high level study group that recommended eminently sensible changes in governance at the World Bank to strengthen the voice of developing country members. Or Kemal Dervis, a former minister of the economy in Turkey, former head of the United Nations Development Program, and former World Bank vice president who is now vice president of the Brookings Institution. A former CGD visiting fellow, he is the author A Better Globalization: Legitimacy, Governance and Reform (a CGD book). Both would be eminently qualified to lead the World Bank (Dervis was a top choice of respondents in a 2007 CGD survey) but neither has had the right affiliation in his own country when it mattered. 1 Comment »Three Questions to Ask the Three Candidates to Lead the World BankMarch 25, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in International Financial Institutions, World Bank Tags: International Financial Institutions, World Bank
The Obama Administration, whether by design or by accident, has opened the door for the first time in the World Bank’s history to the possibility of a real contest over the merits of its nominee to take the helm there compared to a nominee from the developing world. All three candidates have experience working on development (and that is a refreshing change from the tradition of financiers and political heavyweights at the helm). But their strengths are different. In the case of Kim, the U.S. nominee, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, their training, their experience, their instincts, and their worldviews are completely different. 11 Comments »I Finally Visited a Millennium Village: Some ReflectionsMarch 20, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Africa, Global Development Tags: Africa, Millennium Villages
I finally visited a Millennium Village, the Koraro Cluster, in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia (estimated regional population is 4.5 million people). The cluster is located in the Hawzien district (population 117,954) and is made up of 11 villages: Koraro plus 10 neighboring villages (68,000 people total). I’d been invited by John MacArthur who until recently managed the Millennium Promise project, an effort inspired and led by Jeff Sachs to create and support as many as 14 Millennium Villages (MVs) in poor, rural Africa. For the few in the development community who don’t already know: the idea of the Millennium Villages is to demonstrate Sachs’s longstanding contention that with enough money to fund adequately enough interventions (agriculture, health, schooling, water, protection of natural resources) in the poorest parts of the world, the poverty and other Millennium Development Goals can be achieved by 2015. 2 Comments »Next World Bank President: Two Non-U.S. Candidates for the Short ListFebruary 28, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in International Financial Institutions, The Future of the World Bank, World Bank Tags: International Financial Institutions, World Bank
This post is joint with Arvind Subramanian The next World Bank president will need the legitimacy and wide support that only an open and merit-based selection process can ensure. This is now commonly agreed. The best way to ensure legitimacy is to have more than one serious candidate. The Obama administration is sure to nominate a strong candidate. Obama cannot be seen to be relinquishing the right of the United States to name an American, especially in this election year. But the U.S. has signaled its willingness to participate in an open and competitive and process. And the Bank’s board has called for nominations from all member states, which the board says it will then narrow to a short list of three. 5 Comments »Does It Matter Who Runs the World Bank?February 15, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Global Development, World Bank Tags: World Bank
With Robert Zoellick’s announcement that he will step down from the World Bank presidency at the end of June, now comes the question of who his successor will be, particularly whether it will be an American. Just a few days ago I commented on the awkwardness of the situation for the White House. The White House has committed in international fora to an open, merit-based, transparent process, but domestic politics (including some would argue continued support for the World Bank from the Congress) dictates that it make every possible effort to place an American once again in that office. 2 Comments »The Next World Bank President: A White House Stuck between Promises and Political RealitiesFebruary 13, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Global Development, World Bank Tags: World Bank
World Bank president Robert Zoellick has announced he will step down at the end of his term in June. In this post written shortly before the announcement, Nancy Birdsall offers advice to the White House on about how to proceed. The insider talk on the next World Bank president is heating up, with rumors that Robert Zoellick will formally initiate the process in the United States system shortly by indicating to the White House that he will step down at the end of his term in June. Then begins the collision in the White House between its promises to the global community and political realities at home. The collision boils down to the question of whether or not the White House will try to ensure that the longstanding U.S. privilege of picking World Bank presidents prevails once more—arguing that the Europeans after all got their way on another European at the IMF last summer. (For more on this issue, go to the updated CGD Initiative page on the Future of the World Bank here or a Bretton Woods Project site on the World Bank president here). 5 Comments »Barder on Post-Bureaucratic Aid . . . and the Complexity Motive Behind Cash on DeliveryFebruary 10, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Aid Effectiveness, Cash on Delivery Aid Tags: Cash on Delivery
Owen Barder unpacks the results agenda, now so much discussed in the aid and development community, here. It’s brilliant. He sets out four different motivations of various parties in the community for their recent focus on the “results agenda”. I asked myself which motivation has driven my devotion to the idea of Cash on Delivery Aid (COD Aid). (If you are new to COD Aid, see this short video for a start.) 3 Comments »Punishing Pakistan Is Not the Way to GoFebruary 3, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Aid Effectiveness Tags: Pakistan
This post originally appeared on Foreign Policy’s AFPAK page. In the January/February 2012 issue of Foreign Affairs, Stanford political scientist Stephen Krasner claims that “current U.S. policy toward Pakistan has failed” and recommends that the United States take a radically different approach: credibly threaten to sever all forms of cooperation, including all U.S. aid – military and civilian – to force Pakistan into cooperating with the United States on security matters. Center for Global Development President Nancy Birdsall responds. 1 Comment »Bergsten Steps Down from Peterson: On the Bergsten Legacy at CGDJanuary 26, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Economic Development Tags: global development
A less well-known but important part of Fred’s legacy is his role in helping to launch the Center for Global Development. When Ed Scott, CGD’s founding chair, came to Washington in 2000 looking for ways to have an impact on solving what was then called the third world debt crisis, Fred was among the people Ed sought out for advice. Fred and others suggested that he talk to me and soon the three of us were hatching plans for a new think tank – what is today the Center for Global Development. Comment »David Hume (in 1651) on Globalization and Justice for Distant People and Future GenerationsJanuary 9, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Economic Development, Global Development, Globalization Tags: Economic Development, Globalization
Amartya Sen invokes David Hume in The New Republic (December 29) to explain the case for seeking justice for distant people and future generations. From Hume writing in 1651: “Again suppose, that several distinct societies maintain a kind of intercourse for mutual convenience and advantage, the boundaries of justice still grow larger, in proportion to the largeness of men’s views, and the force of their mutual connexions. History, experience, reason sufficiently instruct us in this natural progress of human sentiments, and in the gradual enlargement of our regards to justice, in proposion as we become acquainted with the extensive utility of that virtue. Implication: With globalization comes enlargement of humankind’s sense of responsibility for “other” people to live well.” 1 Comment »Pakistan: Here’s What the United States Actually Can Do Right NowJanuary 6, 2012By Nancy Birdsall in Global Development, International Monetary Fund Tags: global development, IMF
A recent Foreign Affairs article by Stephen Krasner suggests that the United States should withdraw all military and civilian assistance from Pakistan in response to the countries increasingly volatile relationship. CGD President, Nancy Birdsall, takes a more measured response and calls for a renewed focus on U.S. support to private sector growth in Pakistan. This is a joint post with Milan Vaishnav, and Danny Cutherell On December 8th, CGD hosted its first Pakistan study group meeting since the release of its June 2011 report on the U.S. development strategy in Pakistan. Our focus was on how the United States could better support the private sector, especially small business, in Pakistan. That discussion—and our ongoing conversation with study group members, Pakistan experts, and CGD colleagues—provided the basis for our sixth open letter (authored by Nancy) to the Obama Administration, available on our website. 1 Comment »Geeta Rao Gupta Wins 2011 Commitment to Development AwardDecember 8, 2011By Nancy Birdsall in Global Development, Human Rights Tags: Women & Gender
Last night we (Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy Magazine) honored Geeta Rao Gupta with the Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award. The event, a huge success, highlighted her numerous contributions to the field of gender and development. I had fun because the event brought to CGD so many of the early advocates of ensuring attention to women in development (I couldn’t resist saying it felt in a good way to me like “the old girls club”). Geeta received her award surrounded by friends and family, and gave a terrific speech (see HERE). Videos from the event can be found here: (intro, Geeta speech, panel discussion) (There were also references to Geeta’s plenary address at the 2000 International Aids Conference in Durban, South Africa, also worth reading today.) Comment »Aid Alert: China Officially Joins the Donor ClubDecember 5, 2011By Nancy Birdsall in Aid Effectiveness, China Tags: Aid Effectiveness, China
Several thousands gathered in the port city of Busan in Korea (the fifth largest port in the world) this past week at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (#HLF4 on twitter). More than 100 ministers (mostly of development cooperation) attended. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Lee of Korea, President Kagame of Rwanda and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the opening plenary. Clinton is the first U.S. secretary of state to attend an aid forum. Her speech signaled to others that she wants the United States to play better with others in the development sandbox – not just on the vision laid out by President Obama in his United Nations speech two years ago, but in the implementation. (Unfortunately, U.S. performance on the quality of aid quality was, to say it nicely, not great – on the basis of data collected in 2009.) 4 Comments »Libya: Can Oil and Democracy Mix?December 5, 2011By Nancy Birdsall in Governance/Democracy, Oil Tags: Governance/Democracy, Oil, Oil to Cash
Libya’s oil puts at risk its hopes of becoming a democracy. If easy oil money is captured by a few people, and they then control politics, Libya will end up looking more like Angola and less like Norway. But there is a way out. Libya has yet to write its own Constitution. It’s not too late to incorporate directly into its new Constitution the idea that Arvind Subramanian and I proposed for Iraq way back in 2004 (go here). Todd Moss has given the idea the apt title “oil2cash” (#oil2cash on twitter) and he and others are exploring how it could work in Ghana, Bolivia, Mongolia and beyond. 1 Comment »Our Short Wish List for the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid EffectivenessNovember 21, 2011By Nancy Birdsall in Aid Effectiveness Tags: Aid Effectiveness
This is a joint post with Rita Perakis Next week about 2,700 delegates from around the world will gather in Busan, Korea to talk about aid effectiveness: whether there has been progress on aid reform since previous forums in Paris and Accra, and what ‘development cooperation’ (the term for ‘aid’ coming back into vogue) should look like going forward. 1 Comment »This Time Really Is Different (Is the Money There for Europe and the Rest of the World?)November 16, 2011By Nancy Birdsall in International Monetary Fund Tags: global development, global financial crisis, IMF
This is a joint post with Amar Bhattacharya of the G-24 It is more obvious every day that Europe cannot save itself. A meltdown in Europe would not only hurt Europe and the United States. It would also deal a blow to people’s livelihoods everywhere, with high costs especially to people living close to the margin in the developing world. The blow would hurt right away as trade, remittances and commodity prices collapse. And it would continue to hurt over the next two years and more, requiring a long slow slog of the United States and Europe out of stagnation, recession or worse, and knock-on effects in China, Brazil and other big emerging markets that until recently were powering global demand. Comment » |
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