Punching Above Our Weight in a Changing World

CGD works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community to make the world a more prosperous, just, and safe place for us all. The policies and practices of the rich and the powerful—rich nations, the emerging powers, international institutions, and global corporations—have significant impacts on the world’s poor and vulnerable. We aim to improve these policies and practices through research and policy engagement to expand opportunities, reduce inequalities, and improve lives, especially in the developing world.

As the world becomes ever more interdependent, and the big emerging market countries exercise influence well beyond their own borders, CGD’s work has increasingly focused on ways to improve cooperation among nation-states on shared problems.

The Center undertakes independent, high-quality research in economics and other disciplines that investigate pivotal issues of development policy. By pairing research with action, such as our initiatives, CGD goes beyond contributing to knowledge about development. We conceive of and advocate for practical policy innovations in areas such as aid effectiveness, capital flows and financial crises, climate change, debt relief, economic growth, education, food and agriculture, inequality, health, migration, technology, and trade. 

As a nimble, independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit think tank, we leverage modest resources to combine world-class scholarly research with policy analysis and innovative outreach and communications to turn ideas into action.