This week I was privileged to chair a panel discussion at the World Bank on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In celebration of International Women’s Day today, I want to share what I learned and a suggestion for what just might be a new and promising intervention for furthering full equality for women and girls.
Today Miriam Temin and I responded to a critique of Nike’s “Girl Effect” campaign posted on William Easterly’s AIDWATCH blog (check it out here).
A new year calls for a development policy wish list. My wish list is about what the rich and powerful global actors– mostly but not solely in the United States – can do to improve lives among the poor and vulnerable around the world in the coming year.
Inspired by David Roodman’s list of his 20 most popular blog posts for 2010, we have done something similar for CGD’s Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance blog, and the Global Health Policy blog.
USAID Administrator Shah has taken another step in his ambitious program of making USAID not only a premier development agency (as Hillary Clinton promised it would be back in her January 2010 development speech) but premier in economic analysis, and in macro as well as micro. Shah could not have been smarter than to recruit Steve Radelet from his job as a senior advisor on development to Secretary Clinton.
Simon Maxwell has a fantastic posting here on why the recent focus on results-based aid has some development professionals shifting uncomfortably in their seats. In the UK, the new Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell has promised results and value for money in UK aid spending, invoking Cash on Delivery Aid to my delight.
POV, the PBS web portal for discussion of documentaries, invited me to write a comment on Good Fortune, a film about problems with top-down development efforts in Kenya, which is to be broadcast on PBS affiliates tomorrow evening (Tuesday). Below is my comment, which is also available on POV along with a variety of other interesting responses. At noon (Eastern) Wednesday a live online chat about the film will be available at POV and syndicated here.
This is a joint post with William Savedoff.
Policymakers, researchers, and development experts gathered at CGD on May 4 to discuss the implications of existing research on conditional cash transfers (CCTs) and recommend ways for the development community to improve impact evaluations of interventions, like CCTs, in the future. The workshop, entitled Closing the Evaluation Gap: 3ie One Year On (Are Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Improving Human Capital?), was jointly hosted by CGD and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and included a series of presentations and high-level panel discussions focused on the effect of CCT programs on outcomes such as educational attainment, grade progression, birth weight, and access to family planning methods.
In a recent blog post, Evaluation Gap Working Group co-chair and CGD senior fellow William Savedoff explained the motivation for the workshop, highlighting the heightened need to address the ways in which evidence and policymaking interact, as well as the importance of continued improvements in evaluation systems in determining the efficacy of social interventions. We were thrilled with the positive responses from the workshop’s participants and audience members, and invigorated by the discussion and recommendations that arose as a result of the event.
This is a joint post with Sandy Stonesifer
Ever wondered why some events at the Center for Global Development are large, drawing more than 200 members of the development community, while others are small and invitation only? Been disappointed to discover that a crucial CGD event is full and you are stuck on the waiting list? Maybe you've wondered: "Why can't they fit in just one more?" In the spirit of transparency, we are pleased to unveil today our new and improved method for meeting planning.
AidWatch – the brainchild of noted aid critic (and former CGD fellow) Bill Easterly – has given its Best in Aid Grand Prize to the “Smart Giving movement,” nominated by Saundra Schimmelpfennig of the blog Good Intentions are Not Enough.