On Journalism and Global Development--Nicholas Kristof
5/14/13
My guest on the Wonkcast this week is New York Times columnist and two-t
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CGD's weekly Global Prosperity Wonkcast, event videos, whiteboard talks, slides, and more.
The recent collapse of 
Last week, a bipartisan g
Interview with WTO Candidate Amina Mohamed
4/11/13
My guest on this Wonkcast is Amina Mohamed, Assistant Secretary-General of the Unite
World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings – Nancy Birdsall and Todd Moss
4/9/13
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are the twin giants in global development
Interview with WTO Candidate Roberto Azevedo
3/26/13
My guest on this week’s Wonkcast is Roberto Azevedo, the permanent representative of Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and one of nine candidates to be the next Director General (DG) of the WTO. Mr. Azevedo has spent more than 15 years involved with the WTO and tells me his deep experience qualifies him to lead it into the future.
Protecting Forests with Global Forest Watch 2.0 -- David Wheeler and Nigel Sizer
3/18/13
My guests on this week’s Wonkcast are David Wheeler, senior fellow emeritus at CGD, and Nigel Sizer, director of the Global Forest Project at the World Resources Institute (WRI). They joined me after a presentation for CGD staff of Global Forest Watch 2.0, a real-time forest monitoring system that draws from David’s work on the Forest Monitoring for Action initiative (FORMA) here at CGD.
The ability to monitor the status of tropical forests worldwide could be a game-changer in efforts to slow and eventually halt forest clearing. Among the many benefits would be a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.
Interview with WTO Candidate Taeho Bark
3/12/13
My guest Taeho Bark, the Republic of Korea’s trade minister and candidate to be the next director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has witnessed the power of trade transform his country into a high-income, dynamic trading entity.
Interview with WTO Candidate Alan Kyerematen
3/12/13
My guest on this Wonkcast is Alan Kyerematen, Ghana's Minister of Trade, Industry and President’s Special Initiatives and one of nine candidates to be the next head of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In our interview, Minister Kyerematen tells me he possesses the skills and vision needed to lead the WTO.
Getting to Normal with the Two Sudans -- Kate Almquist Knopf
3/5/13
Ten years after the conflict in Darfur began, Sudan and the newly-sovereign South Sudan are still experiencing terrible violence and efforts to ensure lasting peace in the region are falling short. What can the United States do differently to help foster governance that works for both countries? My guest on this week’s Wonkcast is Kate Almquist Knopf -- author of a newly-published CGD report that argues, surprisingly to me, that the United States should normalize diplomatic relations with both Sudan and South Sudan.
Development Drums Episode 36: Accountability and Openness
2/26/13
In this episode, Owen speaks with two guests: Rakesh Rajani, a Tanzanian civil society leader who currently leads Twaweza (meaning ‘we can make it happen’ in Swahili), and Martin Tisné, director of policy at Omidyar Network.
This is the first of three episodes of Development Drums which look at the relationship between effective and accountable states, active citizenship and development.
Interview with WTO Candidate Anabel Gonzalez
2/25/13
My guest Anabel Gonzalez, Costa Rica’s minister of trade and a candidate to be the next head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is a staunch believer in two powers: that of trade to uplift nations and that of the WTO to help navigate the process.
Minister Gonzalez witnessed the power of trade in her own country, which she says transformed itself from an exporter of four or five basic commodities to an exporter of more than 4,300 products including coffee and bananas but also computer parts.
Her confidence in the value of the WTO as a rules-based trade arbiter stems from a 1997 dispute: the United States had restricted imports of Costa Rican-made underwear. Costa Rica appealed to the WTO, which ruled in Costa Rica’s favor.
Interview with WTO Candidate Mari Pangestu
2/14/13
The leadership selection process for the next Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is underway. As I explained in a recent Wonkcast, we at CGD are making a modest contribution by inviting each of the nine candidates to be a guest on the show. My first guest is Mari Pangestu, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy in Indonesia, and former trade minister. In our interview, Minister Pangestu lays out her vision for the WTO and explains why she believes should be the best choice to move the organization forward.
She begins by explaining why Indonesia is an important player in helping the WTO to promote inclusive development through trade.
A New Leader for the WTO –Kimberly Elliott and Arvind Subramanian
2/4/13
Candidates to succeed Pascal Lamy as the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) presented themselves before the general council last week. All but one of the nine candidates are from developing countries, in sharp contrast to those who led the WTO in the past, all but one of whom were from high-income countries. Is this a good sign for the WTO or not? Does this leadership succession process have implications for trade and development?
The Biometrics Revolution -- Alan Gelb and Julia Clark
1/28/13
Imagine that a government employee holding an unfamiliar device and a laptop offers to scan your iris and create for you a unique identification record. Would you agree? For hundreds of millions of people in the developing world, the answer is unequivocally “yes!”
My guests on this Wonkcast are among the world’s leading experts on the burgeoning field of biometric identification and its role in development. Senior fellow Alan Gelb and policy analyst Julia Clark are the authors of a new CGD working paper, Identification for Development: The Biometrics Revolution, the first global survey of the development applications of a potentially transformative new technology. They tell me that biometric identification systems could be the next big thing in development, similar to microcredit and mobile phones in the far-reaching ability to transform poor people’s lives.
A New Liquidity Fund for Latin America -- Liliana Rojas Suarez
1/23/13
Last month members of the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF) convened at CGD to discuss fiscal and monetary issues affecting the region. The claaf, which meets here twice a year, usually offers policy and regulatory recommendations for finance ministers and central bankers in the region. This time the committee proposed something quite different: the five-page statement claaf issued after two days of deliberation recommended the creation of a new regional financial institution—a Latin American Liquidity Fund, to supplement the efforts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when the next global financial crisis hits.