Mission

The Center for Global Development is dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality through policy-oriented research and active engagement on development issues with the policy community and the public. A principal focus of the Center's work is the policies of the United States and other industrial countries that affect development prospects in poor countries.

The Center's research assesses the impact on poor people of globalization and of the policies of industrialized countries, developing countries and multilateral institutions. The Center seeks to identify alternative policies that promote equitable growth and participatory development in low-income and transitional economies, and, in collaboration with civil society and private sector groups, seeks to translate policy ideas into policy reforms. The Center partners with other institutions in efforts to improve public understanding in industrial countries of the economic, political, and strategic benefits of promoting improved living standards and governance in developing countries.

The Center was founded by Edward W. Scott, Jr., a technology entrepreneur committed to eliminating global poverty, Nancy Birdsall, the Center's President, and C. Fred Bergsten, Director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Strategy

The Center employs a unique and dynamic combination of policy-based research, strategic communications and targeted outreach to engage and educate the public and policy makers on development issues.

Policy-based Research. The Center undertakes independent, high-quality research in economics and other areas. Selected projects are conducted jointly with the Institute for International Economics, with which the Center has formed an alliance. The Center also strives to collaborate with developing country research institutions and specialists. The Center's research addresses pivotal issues of development policy:

• Development Aid Effectiveness: Explores the characteristics of effective development assistance, debt relief and donor accountability practices, and develops policy alternatives and delivery innovations.

• Global Health and Education: Addresses the impact of global health, population and education on development, provides innovative solutions to global health and education financing, enhancing girls' education, and other policy problems.

• Global Inclusion: Studies the causes of inequality (both within and among countries) and its impact on growth and stability; the challenges of global economic governance including the appropriate roles of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and other multilateral institutions.

• Migration: Considers the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration presents to global development and poverty reduction, including issues of "brain drain" and labor mobility across national boundaries.

• Trade: Examines the links between trade policy and global poverty reduction, the politics and policy of agricultural subsidies, bilateral vs. multilateral trade negotiations, and intellectual property rights.

Strategic Communications. One of the Center’s key functions is to ensure that its research products and policy recommendations reach policy makers, advocates, and the general public. The Center has developed strategic communications tools including: policy briefs that synthesize its research and policy recommendations; issue briefs that offer short and timely analysis of key issues of immediate policy importance; strategically-timed events that draw current and former policy makers, academics, analysts and advocates from both developing and rich countries, and members of the media; and a website that features the experts, work and outreach activities of the Center.

Targeted Outreach. To maximize its impact on policy-making and advocacy, the Center has designed programs, products and an outreach strategy tailored to each of its key target audiences: U.S. executive and legislative branch officials and their counterparts in other rich nations; development scholars from around the world; print, radio and television media outlets; and the general public. The Center is unique among research institutions in its active engagement with non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups, and is looking to expand its strategic partnerships with organizations that have broad-based U.S public constituencies.