description for initiative overview page
This online map and database presents the best available estimates of CO2 emissions for 50,000 power plants around the world and the identities of the 4,000 firms that own them. Power generation accounts for about one-quarter of global emissions.
COD Aid is a new approach to aid delivery under which donors pay for measurable progress on specific outcomes; for example, a country could receive $100 for each additional child who completes primary school and takes a test.
The initiative seeks practical ways to prevent or contain the emergence of drug resistance in such high-burden diseases as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through improvements in common-property management, information flows, and stepped up research and development.
FORMA uses satellite data to generate regularly updated online maps of tropical forest clearing. Currently available for Indonesia from 2000 to the present, the maps support national forest conservation programs and international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
CGD’s Commission on International Migration Data for Development Research identified steps to improve data collection so that researchers and policymakers have the numbers they need to assess the impact of migration. CGD continues to push for implementation.
Every year natural disasters take a heavy toll on poor people in the developing world. High-income countries could do more to help, at very low cost, by admitting a limited number of the victims of natural disasters in lower income countries, in addition to providing traditional disaster relief.
Natural resources and the unearned income they generate can stifle development by undermining the relationship between citizens and their state. This CGD initiative explores a policy option to encourage a “social contract” in resource-rich countries—direct distribution of revenues.
CGD has convened the Study Group on a U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan to draw lessons from past experiences and offer practical recommendations to U.S. policymakers on the effective deployment of foreign assistance and, more broadly, other non-aid instruments for achieving sustainable development in Pakistan.
A country should not be responsible for debt or other long-term obligations incurred under an illegitimate government that does not serve the best interest of the nation, just as an individual does not have to repay money that someone fraudulently borrows in her name. This initiative sets out to identify ways to alleviate the burden these unjust transactions impose on successor governments and their citizens.
Rich countries and some emerging powers offer poorer developing countries preferential market access, but the programs are often flawed and lack coordination. The initiative aims to reform trade preference programs to expand market access for the poorest countries.
Building on the success of CGD’s MCA Monitor, this initiative offers information, dialogue, and analysis on U.S. foreign assistance reform. It aims to help elevate development and U.S. foreign assistance as a critical national interest priority.
A CGD working group recommended ways to address the paucity of good impact evaluations. CGD then led efforts to implement one key recommendation: establishing a new international entity to provide funding and technical support for rigorous impact evaluations. These efforts contributed to a rapid expansion of rigorous studies aimed at building evidence for better policies in developing countries and among donors. CGD continues to monitor the generation and use of impact evaluations through its Evaluation Gap Newsletter.
In October 2003, CGD launched a bipartisan commission to outline a comprehensive U.S. strategy to address the growing threat of weak and failed states. The Commission’s report helped to shape reforms adopted by the Bush administration.
Shortcomings in demand forecasting for essential drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics have led to unnecessarily high prices, supply shortages, and reluctance to invest in R&D for developing-country diseases. To address this challenge, CGD’s Global Health Forecasting Working Group issued recommendations for donors to make strategic investments that would improve access to information and better align forecasting incentives, ensuring that increasing donor funds for health are used effectively.
Population policy has been a radioactive topic in development circles. CGD worked to break the taboo on such discussions with a series of lectures about the importance of population issues in such areas as infrastructure, migration, and climate.
The agenda describes why and how to provide adolescent girls in developing countries a full and equal chance in life. It offers targeted recommendations for national and local governments, donor agencies, civil society, and the private sector.
The Global Health Policy Research Network served as an umbrella for a large number of CGD initiatives that undertook original, focused research on high-priority global health policy issues.
The Monitor tracked and analyzed the practices of the three major global HIV/AIDS aid initiatives: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); and the World Bank's Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP).
The Working Group on IMF-Supported Programs and Health Expenditures investigated how macroeconomic policies under IMF programs in low-income countries interacted with the management of health spending in a context of scaled-up aid. Utilizing case studies and cross-country comparisons, the working group explored the evidence on what actually happened under IMF programs on the key issues where the IMF role has been criticized. The group concluded with six recommendations for the IMF as well as lessons for other stakeholders.
A CGD Working Group produced an economic and legal framework for funds to incentivize vaccine development. The G-7 Finance Ministers endorsed the approach and five donors (Canada, Italy, Norway, UK and Russia, and the Gates Foundation) committed $1.5 billion to create an incentive for a vaccine against the strains of pneumococcus disease prevalent in low-income countries. For updates, see Advance Market Commitments for Vaccines (http://www.vaccineamc.org/), a joint effort of the GAVI Alliance and the World Bank.
From eradication of polio in Latin America to HIV prevention in Thailand, the 17 cases in this study show that large-scale success in health are indeed possible. A companion website offers a video, teacher's guide, and information about how to achieve future successes.
Nigeria, home to one in five Africans, has been the continent's most indebted nation. CGD began working on Nigerian debt issues in early 2004 to provide analytical support to Nigeria's ongoing efforts to persuade its creditors to agree to an appropriate debt relief package. In October 2005, Nigeria and the Paris Club announced a final agreement that should lead to debt relief worth $18 billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria's debt stock by $30 billion.
A CGD working group reviewed what is known about how population dynamics (such as fertility, mortality, and migration) affect economic outcomes and recommended a research agenda to fill gaps in that knowledge. Subsequently, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation allocated more than $15 million for research on the topic, with an emphasis on Africa. CGD's new Demographics and Development Initiative incorporates key results in its messages.
The Scott Family Liberia Fellows program recruited and supported young professionals to work in the Liberian government. Founded by a generous grant from the Edward W. Scott Jr. family, the Fellows program sought to address the severe capacity gap at the sub-ministerial level while also building capacity within Liberia’s civil service. The success of the Fellows program has allowed it to expand in scope and size; the program is now solely administered through the John Snow Research and Training Institute, Inc.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's inauguration as the President of Liberia in January 2006 marked a watershed in that country's tumultuous history. Former CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet advised Sirleaf and senior members of her government on a variety of issues, including debt relief and donor relations.
CGD has an active program of research and analysis of the World Bank, the world's largest development institution and a leading source of funds, ideas, and expertise for development.
As the founding executive director of UNAIDS prepared to step down at the end of 2008, CGD and the Economic Governance Programme of Oxford University convened an expert working group to develop recommendations for the incoming leadership of UNAIDS, the Programme Coordinating Board, and other stakeholders.
CGD has taken an extra interest in Zimbabwe because the country presents several unique challenges for the development community and for Africa.
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