CGD's weekly Global Prosperity Wonkcast, event videos, whiteboard talks, slides, and more.
Tony Blair today set out his vision for a new partnership with Africa, in which the international community supports committed African leaders to transform their countries by making government work better.
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 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?
On Monday, November 1, 2010 the Center for Global Development was pleased to host, along with the Institute of Medicine, What’s on the Agenda? Assessing the UN Summit on Non-communicable Diseases, featuring presentations by Rachel Nugent, Deputy Director of Global Health, CGD and Derek Yach, Senior Vice President of Global Health Policy, PepsiCo. Ambassador Richard Bernal, Alternate Executive Director, Inter-American Development Bank provided the opening remarks and served as moderator. Discussants included James Hospedales, Senior Advisor, Prevention & Control of Chronic Diseases, Pan-American Health Organization, Julian Schweitzer, Principal, Results for Development Institute and Peter Lamptey, President of Public Health Programs, Family Health International.
On September 29, 2010, senior fellow Michael Clemens participated in a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute of Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization, a new book that proposes shifting U.S. immigration policy to favor work-based visas.
QuODA is an assessment of the Quality of Official Development Assistance provided by 23 countries and more than 150 aid agencies. It uses 30 indicators in four dimension that reflect the international consensus of what constitutes high-quality aid: Maximizing efficiency, Fostering institutions, Reducing Burden, Transparency and Learning
A short film tells the story of Khalifa, a nurse in Ghana who contracted typhoid. She takes one drug and then another—each more expensive than the last—but still she isn’t well. The film uses expert interviews and animation to explain why drug resistance threatens us all—and what we can do about it.
CGD senior policy analyst Molly Kinder interview on Al Jazeera English on the U.S. humanitarian response to the floods in Pakistan.
CNN correspondent Ali Velshi interviews CGD Senior Policy Analyst Molly Kinder on the international response to flooding in Pakistan.
Latin America may be quite vulnerable to events in Europe. Beyond the risk that a deep crisis in Europe may result in double dip recession in advanced economies with deleterious global implications, Latin America's trade and financial channels with Europe are large and growing. On the other hand, as in the 1970s, capital flight from advanced economies (especially Europe) could mean more capital flowing into Latin America, offering at least a temporary relief from real sector shocks. The Latin-American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF) met to address the following issues:
• Under what international scenarios will economic and financial stability in Latin America be compromised?
• Could financial systems in the region withstand a crisis in Spain's banking system?
• Is the recovery in the region sustainable or just the result of temporary capital inflows?
• How should the region's policymakers respond to current vulnerabilities? Is now the time to consider capital controls?
• In light of the recent international experience, should the role of central banks in the region be revised, and should financial regulation be reformed?
The world is rapidly losing the ability to fight disease because of an invisible adversary: drug resistance. Resistance is inevitable but human actions are hastening it. Without a global effort to ensure lasting effectiveness of treatment, drug resistance is poised to get worse fast, raising costs, claiming more lives, and making future generations vulnerable to diseases that are easily cured today. After two years of study and analysis, CGD’s expert Drug Resistance Working Group urges four crucial steps to combat the problem in a pivotal new report, The Race Against Drug Resistance. On Tuesday, June 15, 2010 the Center for Global Development hosted the launch event of The Race Against Drug Resistance at the National Press Club.
As the Toronto G-20 Summit approaches, wealthy countries remain preoccupied with their slow economic recovery and the crisis spilling out of Greece. These important issues risk distracting leaders from the urgent problems of global poverty and inequality. In response to this concern, CGD recently hosted a press briefing to inform journalists about the development issues likely to arise at the summit. CGD president Nancy Birdsall, who has recently discussed the Toronto Summit agenda with senior U.S. and Canadian officials, delivered a brief opening statement on trade, financial inclusion, aid effectiveness, and the multilateral development banks. CGD experts briefly elaborated.
Billions of dollars in aid are flowing to developing countries to confront HIV/AIDS but relatively little is known yet about the effectiveness of this aid.
The Center for Global Development's HIV/AIDS Monitor staff works with local researchers in three African countries -- Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia - to jointly plan the key research questions and
As part of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the Center for Global Development addressed these issues in a two-part panel discussion on How are HIV/AIDS donors interacting with
CGD senior fellow Liliana Rojas-Suarez discussed the main differences and hot button issues regarding the proposals of Democratic and Republican Senators on the Financial Regulatory Reform. Four major areas of debate were identified: the consumer protection agency, financial derivates, the roles and limitations of the banks, and the rescue fund.
On Wednesday, April 14, 2010 Center for Global Development hosted a conversation with The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan, who offered his perspective on several of the key issues that his country faces, including electoral reform, consolidation of the gains of the Niger Delta Amnesty, the fight against corruption, and improvement to the power and energy sectors.
This video includes highlights from the Center for Global Development's trade preference report launch, Open Markets for the Poorest Countries: Trade Preferences That Work. Working group chair and CGD senior fellow Kimberly Elliott presented the reports recommendations, and CGD president Nancy Birdsall moderated a panel discussion with working group members William Lane and Gawain Kripke on how trade policies can better support development objectives.