CGD initiatives are practical proposals to improve the policies and practices of rich countries, international bodies, and others of means and influence to reduce global poverty and inequality. Initiatives draw upon the Center’s rigorous research and utilize innovative communications and direct engagement with decision-makers to change the world.
Beginning in 2004, CGD convened a working group to evaluate the lack of good impact evaluation and recommend solutions. CGD then led the implementation of one key recommendation: the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), which provides funding and technical support for rigorous impact evaluations. CGD continues to monitor the generation and use of impact evaluations in development policy through its Evaluation Gap Newsletter.
In October 2003, CGD launched a bipartisan commission to outline a comprehensive US strategy to address the growing threat of weak and failed states. The Commission’s report helped to shape reforms adopted by the Bush administration.
Meeting public-health needs in developing countries is made more difficult without accurate forecasting of the demand for medical products—no matter how much money is available to develop and purchase them. Shortcomings in demand forecasting increase risks for suppliers, resulting in higher costs, supply shortages, and uncertainty surrounding R&D. CGD’s Demand Forecasting initiative led to the publication in 2007 of A Risky Business with recommendations for specific public and private organizations to smooth the delivery of health products to the people who need them.
Journalist Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has called population "the most important issue confronting humanity in this century." Important new books on the future of development have devoted significant attention to it. Debates about population policy continue to stir and columnists and academics argue about what lies ahead if global population challenges are ignored. Population—the study of people using the tool of demography—is now appearing across development discourse, with policy implications that reach far beyond family planning and reproductive health.
One in eight people in the world is a girl or young woman 10 to 24 years old. Young people are the fastest growing segment of the population in developing countries, and their welfare is fundamental key economic and social outcomes. But girls in developing countries face systematic disadvantages over a wide range of welfare indicators, including health, education, nutrition, labor force participation, and the burden of household tasks. This CGD initiative examined ways to improve the welfare of girls and young women in developing countries.
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.
From 2006 until 2010, the HIV/AIDS Monitor focused on the performance of three HIV/AIDS donor programs—the U.S. government's President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund), and the World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP). The Center for Global Development’s HIV/AIDS Monitor team, led by Nandini Oomman examined key issues in the design, delivery and management of these donor programs, and provided timely analyses to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of each initiative.
Health outcomes and economic policies are linked in complex ways that go well beyond the IMF competence or mandate. However, IMF programs can indirectly influence the health sector through its policy prescriptions.
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.