China's Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection (Event Video)
5/1/13
How big is China’s aid to Africa? Does it complement or undermine the efforts of traditional donors?
Multimedia
CGD's weekly Global Prosperity Wonkcast, event videos, whiteboard talks, slides, and more.
Nancy Birdsall Discusses CGD's Twelve-Step Program for Policy Change
11/26/12
Nancy Birdsall discusses CGD's Twelve-Step Program for Policy Change, ideas originally published by Lawrence MacDonald and Ruth Levine in 2008.
Assessing the Los Cabos G-20 Summit and Rio+20 Earth Summit: Implications for Development (Event Video)
6/29/12
Over the course of one week, world leaders convened in Los Cabos, Mexico, for the G20 Summit and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The outcomes of these two high-level meetings have potentially important implications for poor people in the developing world in three key areas: food security and agriculture, energy, and green growth. U.S. representatives to the Los Cabos G20 and Rio+20 summits, and other distinguished speakers joined us for an assessment of these summits and the road ahead.
Program-for-Results (PforR) Financing: Current Progress and Next Steps (Event Video)
1/24/12
Program-for-Results (PforR), a new World Bank lending instrument, is one of several innovative approaches to development aid that focus on measurable development outcomes. Proponents argue that PforR will help strengthen institutions, build capacity, and enhance partnerships. Critics contend it may bypass hard-won social and environmental safeguards. This event will include an overview of the approach followed by a panel discussion with aid experts with a variety of perspectives.
Global Risks for Low-Income Countries: Views on the IMF Perspective (Event Video)
12/23/11
Most low-income countries (LICs) recovered swiftly from the 2008-9 global crisis and have grown strongly since early 2010. But progress in rebuilding macroeconomic buffers has been slow, and the LICs are now less well prepared to deal with external shocks than they were before the crisis. At a time when the risks to the global outlook are intensifying, a new IMF study finds that many LICs would struggle to cope with a renewed global downturn. In a second report, the IMF and World Bank explore the role contingent financial instruments—such as commodity hedging, contingent debt, and insurance—could play to help LICs manage global volatility. IMF staff will present the key findings of these studies, highlighting the policy implications for LICs and the international community, with comments by expert discussants to follow.
Unlocking $1 Trillion for Developing Countries
12/2/11
Lawrence Macdonald, vice president for communications and policy outreach at the Center for Global Development, explains how CGD helped make $1 trillion available to developing countries after the global financial crisis. In the spring of 2009, the participation of developing countries in the global stimulus was made possible at the G-20 summit. But how much money was needed for the most vulnerable countries and where would it come from? Nancy Birdsall, president of CGD, prepared a note stating that they would need access to 1 trillion dollars to cope with the effects of the crisis. Birdsall then put together a blueprint for making the resources available. By channeling the plan to the right people and testifying in front of Congress, CGD helped to unlock the $1 trillion and make it possible for the IMF and World Bank to help vulnerable countries cope with the crisis.
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?
CGD Special Discussion with David Gergen on Obama's Global Development Policy (Event Video)
1/17/09
Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report, and a senior political analyst for CNN, David Gergen joined CGD president Nancy Birdsall, and CGD senior fellows who authored essays in our recent book, The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President, for a lively discussion of the prospects for improved U.S. development policy under President Barack Obama.