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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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March 19, 2010Birdsall tells Congress Haiti Needs More than Aid—and More Flexibility from Congress ItselfPosted by Sarah Jane Staats in Global Development Tags: Foreign Aid Reform, Haiti, On the Hill
In her testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade, Birdsall outlined three principles and three priority actions for U.S. efforts in support of Haiti: Read More… Comment »March 19, 2010A Development Perspective on China’s Currency – And a Fresh WTO SolutionPosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Global Development Tags: China, IMF, World Trade Organization
Comment »March 18, 2010A New CGD Initiative on U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan: What Is It and Will It Work?Posted by Nancy Birdsall in Global Development Tags: Pakistan
At CGD, we normally conduct research and analysis on development issues (trade, aid effectiveness, climate change, global health), not developing countries. Pakistan is an exception. Motivated by national security interests, the Obama administration is poised to triple its development assistance to Pakistan. The effectiveness of this new U.S. assistance is imperiled by the same governance problems that have undermined the billions spent by the U.S. and other donors in the last 30 years. Given these challenges, how can the new pledges of U.S. aid to Pakistan be implemented effectively, and what, if any, other policy or program initiatives might matter? To address these questions, we recently launched a new CGD initiative on the U.S. development strategy in Pakistan. As part of this initiative we have convened a study group, comprising leading experts in development economics, national security, aid effectiveness and including several prominent Pakistanis. The study group will meet regularly over the next year to help us prepare periodic open letters to the administration commenting on and hopefully helping improve the assistance program, as well as trade and other U.S. policies aimed at greater security, stability and prosperity in Pakistan. Comment »March 11, 2010What We Talk About When We Talk About DevelopmentPosted by David Roodman in Global Development Tags: Evaluation, MicrofinanceYou might know that I am writing a book about microfinance in public, via blogus. I’m working on the last chapter now, and that has me in a reflective mood. Here, I’d like to share one big idea that I discovered by writing the book. I am fired up about it, and I’d appreciate feedback on whether it is dumb, old, useless, or all three. Here’s how I explained it last December:
2 Comments »March 11, 2010Mitch Smith Wins Trip to Africa with Nick Kristof!Posted by Ben Edwards in Africa, Economic Development, Global Development, News, Poverty Tags: Nick Kristof, Win a tripThis is a joint post with Katherine Douglas and Sandy Stonesifer.
Those of you who entered or follow the yearly Win-a-Trip contest know that Nick asked CGD to vet the first round of applications. We jumped at the opportunity to lend some elbow grease to Nick’s contest and quickly realized how persuasively and passionately these students communicated about poverty and development. Read More… 4 Comments »March 10, 2010Should Donors Support Investigative Reporting in Poor Countries?Posted by Mead Over in Global DevelopmentThe book Newsonomics by Ken Draper documents the decline of the “old media” and opines on the negative impact such a decline will have on the quality of American political discourse. It seems to me that the collapse of the old media is also a development issue. Read More… 1 Comment »March 8, 2010Look, Ma, New ClothesPosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Global DevelopmentDevoted readers may have noticed last week that the we launched a revamped website with improved navigation and a greatly enhanced search function. Other new features:
Hats off to CGD Web technology manager Steve (“No Drama”) Perlow and a small army of CGD junior staff and interns who assisted by updating content, finding new and better pictures, and generally doing the million-and-one things involved in smoothly revamping a website that boasts countless thousands of pages. (Well, actually they can be counted. Google reports 23,000 but we figure there’s some double counting going on.) Thanks, too, to our pals at Forum One Communications who led us through the design and construction process with lots of smart ideas and unfailing good humor. I think the new site is a big improvement and hope you agree. Of course, inevitably there are a few bugs and plenty that could be better. Tell us what you like (or don’t) below or drop a line to Steve (webmaster@cgdev.org). He’ll be glad to hear from you. 1 Comment »March 3, 2010Blurring the Line between Defense and DevelopmentPosted by Vijaya Ramachandran in Fragile States, Global Development Tags: Security and DevelopmentThis is a joint post with Julia Barmeier.
Should we be worried? Read More… 9 Comments »February 26, 2010A New Home at USAIDPosted by Ruth Levine in Global Development, Global Health Tags: Evaluation, USAID
And, yes, it is hard to leave CGD. Read More… 13 Comments »February 22, 2010A Green Fund: From the IMF, George Soros, and the Government of MexicoPosted by Nancy Birdsall in Global Development Tags: Davos, IMFOn January 30 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the IMF, announced a possible new initiative – a multi-billion dollar Green Fund (that name is popular – see below) that would help developing countries finance the measures needed to tackle climate change – possibly with partial funding through issuance by the IMF of new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). This would be one way of jump-starting the financing of the Green Fund that Mexico has proposed. Of course such a Fund would not need to be “at” the IMF (more on that below). Read More… Comment »February 22, 2010It’s 2010! Ten Actionable Ideas (Realized and Yet-to-be-realized) for a 21st-Century Global Development AgendaPosted by Nancy Birdsall in Global Development Tags: Advanced Market Commitments, Evaluation, G20, MCC, Migration and Population, Millennium Development Goals
7 Comments »February 22, 2010Dubai’s Labor Market – A Model for Other Countries?Posted by Vijaya Ramachandran in Global Development, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: DubaiDubai has many unique features—it is a city state arising improbably out of the desert, boasting some extraordinary buildings, including a hotel shaped like an Arabian dhow and a 12 million sq ft shopping mall, with a fountain four times the size of the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. But despite this uniqueness, its labor market policies may well serve as a model for other countries. Dubai has actively sought talent from all corners of the world—its population of 1.7 million has four times as many foreigners as locals. These guest workers staff hotels, drive cabs, build skyscrapers, and run hair salons, among other things. It is hard to find a country that is not represented in Dubai. Dubai’s government grants them temporary work permits—usually for three years—with the possibility of renewal. Read More… 3 Comments »February 19, 2010Despite Coup in Niger, Wrong Time to Yank Humanitarian AssistancePosted by Jenny Aker in Global Development Tags: Democracy
photo by edoug / CC BY-SA 2.0
On February 18, 2010, gunfire broke out around the Presidential Palace in Niger. According to most recent reports, President Mamadou Tandja and his cabinet are in captivity, and a military group, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (SCRD), has seized power to “make Niger an example of democracy and good governance.” Niger has been here before. With 85 percent of the population living on less than USD$2 per day, Niger is the lowest-ranked country on the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). This landlocked Sahelian country has a long history of political instability, military rule and coup d’etats, two of which took place in the 1990s. After the coup in April 1999, the military leadership quickly moved to undertake democratic elections, bringing President Tandja to power. Read More… 5 Comments »February 16, 2010Postcard from Dubai—Infrastructure Investments May Eventually Prove Wise After AllPosted by Vijaya Ramachandran in Global Development Tags: World BankDubai must be seen to be believed. Even its skyline is unreal–rising straight out of the desert and now dominated by the 2625 ft tall, 160-story, silver and glass structure, the Burj Khalifa, built by Samsung to be twice as tall as the Empire State Building in New York. But two months after its grand opening, the Burj remains mostly empty with its observation deck closed to visitors–perhaps symbolic of the fate of this Emirate, which has recently become dependent on huge amounts of short-term debt to keep its economy going. Read More… 1 Comment »February 5, 2010Why Not Do for Haiti Now What We’ve Already Done for Africa?Posted by Kimberly Ann Elliott in Global Development Tags: Africa, TradeUnder the African Growth and Opportunity Act, eligible countries can export apparel to the United States duty-free, using fabric and other inputs from wherever it is produced most cost-effectively, as long as the fabric is cut and sewn in the African beneficiary country. Under the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act, as I discussed in a post earlier this week, most Haitian apparel exports must incorporate American materials to be eligible for duty-free treatment. If American yarn and fabric were the most cost-effective option for Haitian producers, then this provision would not be necessary. That, in turn, suggests that Haiti’s exports are not as competitive as they would be if producers were free to choose where they sourced their materials, and that means fewer exports and fewer jobs created. Read More… 3 Comments »February 3, 2010Obama’s First Budget Request: Modest Increases but Strong Signaling for DevelopmentPosted by Sarah Jane Staats in Global DevelopmentMore on the FY11 BudgetPresident Obama’s first full budget request hit the streets Monday. Since then, Washington has been scrambling to decipher the numbers and what’s behind them. It’s important to note that we are dealing largely with top line numbers and many details won’t be available for several weeks, and that’s before the budget starts to go through Congress. But here’s what I see so far on the development side*: Read More… 2 Comments »February 2, 2010Post-Davos: Reflections on Key Development IssuesPosted by Nancy Birdsall in Global DevelopmentFinancial regulation – what to do about the banks – dominated the headlines from Davos. But this year development issues were also prominent in one form or another. First, climate change. A cloud analysis of topics of the day at Davos would include in big prominent letters Copenhagen/Climate. I sat in on: A distinguished panel “From Copenhagen to Mexico: What Next?” including Congressman Markey (of the Waxman-Markey House bill), President Calderon, who will host the first post-Copenhagen international meeting of climate negotiators, and Shyman Saran (India’s special envoy on climate), managed a positive spin (but see this take). But as happens when panel members are distinguished and many hold official positions, they skirted one big issue and completely ignored a second one. Both have to do with the troubling differences between developed and developing country positions (and mindsets). The absence of these two issues reflects the primitive state of the dialogue and bodes ill for the 2010 Mexico conference. Read More… Comment »January 29, 2010Impact Evaluation Has Come So Far!Posted by William Savedoff in Evaluation, Evaluation Gap, Global Development
If you had asked me whether this would happen back in 2004 when Ruth Levine, Nancy Birdsall and I started the Evaluation Gap Initiative, I’m not sure I would have been so optimistic. Read More… Comment »January 28, 2010CGD’s Steve Radelet Joins the U.S. GovernmentPosted by Nancy Birdsall in Global Development
For me personally this is a bittersweet moment. Sweet because I know that the U.S. development effort will benefit greatly from everything Steve has to offer, and I trust that he will find new opportunities for carrying on CGD’s spirit in his new role. Indeed, I’ve encouraged such cross-fertilization in our staffing (see, for example, Todd Moss and visiting fellow John Simon). And sad because my colleagues and I will greatly miss having Steve as part of the lively give-and-take that makes CGD such a satisfying place to work. Steve’s scholarship and policy savvy have contributed greatly to the Center’s success over the years. Among his many achievements at CGD, he wrote Challenging Foreign Aid: A Policymakers Guide to the Millennium Challenge Account — quite literally the book on the MCA. Some in the blogosphere have called him, without exaggeration, the architect of the MCA. Steve was a founding co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, which outlined U.S. reform needs. And together with Sheila Herrling he wrote the chapter on U.S. development reform in White House and the World. (Folks working on the PSD and QDDR who have not yet read this will want to make sure that they do!). I am grateful for Steve’s advice and friendship, and I will miss having him as a colleague. At the same time, I am proud that this very senior-level appointment reflects enormously well not only on Steve’s own achievements but also on the reputation of the Center. All of us here wish him all the best in his new endeavor. 1 Comment »January 28, 2010CGD State of the Union Bingo: Big on Fun, Little on Development ContentPosted by Sarah Jane Staats in Global Development, U.S. Foreign Aid Reform
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The U.S. response in Haiti must be about more than aid, CGD president Nancy Birdsall told Congress this week. She urged members of Congress to push for better trade and migration policies—in addition to more flexibility with our assistance efforts—to help Haiti rebuild after the earthquake.
My colleage Arvind Subramanian published an intriguing Op-Ed in the Financial Times this week. In 
This is a joint post with 
After three months, 893 applications, and a lot of effort by bright university students across the United States, New York Times columnist 
In a little-noticed move in January, 
On Monday, I will join USAID as Director of Evaluation, Policy Analysis & Learning. In this position, I’ll be supporting initiatives that are already underway to apply the best available evidence to decisions at many levels, and to generate new knowledge as an integral part of the agency’s work. This reflects a major priority throughout the administration, and particularly for USAID Administrator Raj Shah, and it is a tremendous opportunity to extend work that I’ve done with others at the Center for Global Development. I know from my many interactions with USAID staff over many years that the agency is filled with dedicated, talented, and experienced professionals, and I’m looking forward to being able to contribute to their work.
I attended a conference convened and hosted by 
Last week, I attended the board meeting of 
As many of you who closely track U.S. development policy doubtlessly already know, one of CGD’s first senior fellows, Steve Radelet, joined the U.S. government this week as a senior advisor on development in the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 
CGD’s seventh annual State of the Union bingo party last night, which had a nice shout out from the 
