Ideas to Action:

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CGD's weekly Global Prosperity Wonkcast, event videos, whiteboard talks, slides, and more.

The 2000s Were the Best Decade Ever? Development Optimist Charles Kenny

12/21/10

Charles KennyMany of us may be glad to be rid of the Naughts, a decade perhaps destined to be remembered for global terrorism, U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a global financial crisis that threatened a second Great Depression but left the rich world instead with a lingering Great Recession. My guest this week argues that the departing decade is unfairly maligned. Charles Kenny recently joined the Center for Global Development as a senior fellow. In a piece published in Foreign Policy magazine, he argues that the 2000s were the best decade in history.

More than Money: Impact Investing for Development (Event Video)

12/13/10

Impact Investing—seeking positive social and financial returns—is generating tremendous interest in the financial and foundation communities as a new, more effective way to achieve development. Can it really change the development dynamic for the good, and can impact investments really fight poverty while they generate returns for well-heeled investors? In a new CGD report, More than Money: Impact Investing for Development, John Simon, former OPIC Executive Vice President and US Ambassador to the African Union, and coauthor Julia Barmeier explore the potential and pitfalls of impact investment. The event will include a discussion of their recommendations for practitioners, development finance institutions, and regulators.

The Global Implications of India's Microcredit Crisis (Event Video)

12/9/10

The largest crisis in the history of microfinance is now unfolding in India. After five years of growth so fast it has been described as “indescribable,” and after a lucrative initial public offering (IPO) by the leading firm, the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh has cracked down. Amid reports of microcredit-linked suicides, the state has urged borrowers to stop repaying, and millions have heeded the call. Bankruptcies of some of the world’s largest microcreditors are now a realistic possibility.

What is the reality of microcredit in India? Is the backlash an engineered campaign to protect a government-run (and World Bank–financed) finance program from private-sector competition? Or has the fast growth in credit ensnared the poor in debt? Some of each?

And what lessons does the crisis hold for actors worldwide, including microfinance institutions and investors ranging from the World Bank to Kiva users? When is microcredit—and investment in it—too much of a good thing?

Who Gets the Debt If Sudan Splits? Ben Leo

12/6/10

A 2011 referendum in Southern Sudan will determine the sub-nation’s independence – and it’s just one month away. Ahead of the South’s possible secession, Sudanese leaders are scrambling to find solutions to a host of questions, a critical one being: What should be done with Sudan’s crushing $35 billion external debt burden? I’m joined on this Wonkcast by Ben Leo, a research fellow here at the Center for Global Development, who has just published a CGD working paper which outlines potential scenarios for post-referendum debt division between the Khartoum government in the north and an independent Southern Sudan. On the Wonkcast, Ben explains how debt complicates the landscape for splitting Sudan and outlines a range of possible approaches to a viable solution.

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