Todd Moss

Andrew Mitchell, MP, UK Shadow Minister for International Development, will be speaking about the UK Conservative Party's development policy and plans, including the main elements of the "green paper" issued recently. One World Conservatism lays out the Tory strategy for fighting global poverty and how the UK aid regime may change if the Conservative Party wins next year's elections.

CGD vice president for corporate affairs and senior fellow Todd Moss will testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee on African Affairs about exploring U.S. policy options toward Zimbabwe’s transition.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has become increasingly engaged in development activities over the past ten years through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader counterterrorism effort. While the development community points to the links between poverty and U.S. security threats to justify increasing aid budgets, the Pentagon has shifted its priorities and resources to increase its engagement with the developing world. David Jea, a CGD visiting associate on leave from the U.S. State Department, presents data on DoD’s evolving authorities, programs, personnel, and budgets, shedding light on the current civilian military imbalance and its possible implications.

The New Ideas in Development After the Financial Crisis Conference, sponsored by CGD and the Bernard L. Schwartz Forum on Constructive Capitalism, will examine the implications of the global financial crisis on existing development strategies. Panels of distinguished academics and policy practitioners will explore how different regions of the developing world are interpreting this crisis and how they are likely to respond on a national and international level.

Why is the private sector yet to take off in much of sub-Saharan Africa? In Africa's Private Sector, Vijaya Ramachandran and her co-authors identify the biggest obstacles: inadequate infrastructure (especially unreliable electricity and crumbling roads) and burdensome regulations. The authors suggest investing in infrastructure and reforming regulations to lower the cost of doing business, and increasing the access to education for would-be entrepreneurs to help foster the emergence of a broader-based business class that crosses ethnic divides. Join us for a discussion of how foreign donors can help African businesses by supporting better roads and renewable energy systems.

The recently published China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence sheds new light on the well studied but still poorly understood emerging relationship by drawing in the perspectives of African, Chinese, and American scholars. Robert Rotberg, volume editor, argues that China’s current thrust into sub-Saharan Africa promises to do more for economic growth and poverty alleviation there than anything attempted by Western colonialism or the massive initiatives of the international lending agencies and other donors. Chapter author Wenran Jiang explores China’s strategic interests, particularly its focus on energy, and concludes that China and the West both have an interest in cooperating to facilitate geopolitical stability. Both authors will also discuss challenges of the new U.S. administration to respond effectively to Chinese engagement in the continent, including partnership on donor assistance and tackling the toughest cases in Somalia, Zimbabwe, and Sudan.