Ideas to Action:

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

Ranking the Rich

11/17/11

Johnny West

In this two-minute 2006 video clip, CGD’s David Roodman explains the purpose and approach of the Commitment to Development Index, which ranks how well rich countries support development across seven different policy areas. Moises Naim, then editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy Magazine; and Evelyn Herfkens, then executive coordinator of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Campaign, discuss the impact of the CDI. Naim says that the index has encouraged debate and policy changes throughout the world which otherwise would not have taken place. Watch the movie, then learn more about the CDI.

Ranking the Rich in the 2011 Commitment to Development Index: David Roodman

11/1/11

How well did the 22 rich countries that belong to the OECD Development Committee (OECD-DAC) perform in terms of supporting development in 2011? In this week’s Wonkcast, my guest David Roodman, architect of the Commitment to Development Index (CDI), explains some surprising results of the newly released 2011 CDI. While the United States climbed the charts due to a controversial increase in internationally mandated military intervention in Afghanistan, other countries such as Spain and Ireland fell in the rankings because of slower immigration from developing countries.

I also ask David about CGD’s new research data disclosure policy, and its potential to help him improve the Index. As a result of this policy, which David initiated, and the World Bank’s decision to offer free access to its World Development Indicators, full CDI data and “do files” are now available on-line. David encourages students and researchers to poke at it—he is modestly confident that somebody will find some bugs. To read full show summary of the Wonkcast go to www.cgdev.org/wonkcast.

Mohammed Yunus Forced Out –Whither Microcredit? David Roodman

5/24/11

Mohammed Yunus has been forced by a Bangladesh court to step down as the head of the Grameen Bank, leaving the world to wonder what will become of the institution that helped inspire the microfinance revolution. On this week’s Wonkcast, we consider the rise and uncertain future of microcredit, not so long ago the darling of development experts and activists alike, and discuss whether or not the arc of Yunus’s remarkable life serves as an apt metaphor for the microfinance movement.



My guest is CGD senior fellow David Roodman, who has been tracking the Yunus trial since it began as part of his Microfinance Open Book Blog. The book in public on the blog, Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, is nearing completion and will be published before the end of the year.


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