Commitment to Development Award

Each year the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine present the Commitment to Development 'Ideals to Action' Award to honor an individual or organization from the rich world that has made a significant contribution to changing attitudes and policies towards the developing world. CGD president Nancy Birdsall and Foreign Policy magazine editor-in-chief Moisés Naím co-chair a selection panel that includes distinguished leaders of the development community.

2009 Award Recipient: Diego Hidalgo Schnur

Diego Hidalgo Schnur received the 2009 Award for his resolute dedication to helping the world’s poorest people. He is the founder or key sponsor of numerous organizations committed to promoting development and democracy across the globe. These include Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA), which produces the Humanitarian Response Index; the Foundation for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa (FRIDA), an NGO that promotes cooperation and development projects in the continent’s poorest countries; and the Toledo International Centre for Peace (CITpax), a Spanish think tank.

Previous Award Recipients

2008

The ONE Campaign received the 2008 Commitment to Development Award for their tireless effort to raise awareness of global poverty during the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. Through its ONE Vote ‘08 initiative, ONE mobilized 2 million supporters to sign petitions, raise awareness in their communities, and encourage the presidential candidates to explain how they would improve U.S. policies that affect poor people in developing countries.

2007

Global Witness received the 2007 Commitment to Development Award for exposing how corruption and environmental betrayal go hand-in-hand. Global Witness, a small U.K.-based NGO, helped to bring the problem of conflict diamonds to the world's attention and has crusaded to stop the plunder of rain forests in Cambodia and Burma.

2006

U.S. Congressman Jim Kolbe received the 2006 Commitment to Development Award for promoting innovation within the U.S. foreign aid program. As chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Kolbe helped to make the case for the Bush Administration's aid program, the Millennium Challenge Account. Kolbe was also frank about the broader problems of the U.S.'s highly fragmented and poorly administered aid programs.

2005

Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Treasury of the United Kingdom received the 2005 Commitment to Development Award for his efforts to improve the lives of people in developing countries. Brown, who later became the U.K. prime minister, played a key role as chancellor of the exchequer in the notable effort by the U.K. to apply solid economic analysis to the formation of specific proposals to improve rich country policies towards the developing world.

2004

Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair Campaign has been a powerful tool in shaping global trade debates -- at the individual, national and international level. The campaign’s efforts to change world trade rules so that trade can make a real difference in the fight against poverty have been a positive force in demonstrating the effect of rich country policies on developing nations.

2003

The Utstein Group received the 2003 Commitment to Development Award for its dedication, vision, and leadership in reducing global poverty and inequality in developing countries, challenging the norms of the development establishment, and highlighting the importance of policy coherence.