Ideas to Action:

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

Unlocking $1 Trillion for Developing Countries

12/2/11

Evalgap

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.  

Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid

12/2/11

COD aid

In this two-minute clip from 2010, Ayah Mahgoub, former CGD special assistant to the president, discusses Cash on Delivery  Aid (COD Aid), a CGD initiative for making aid more effective. COD Aid builds on existing initiatives to disburse aid against results but links payments more directly to a single, agreed-upon outcome. The approach gives recipients the autonomy to achieve progress however they see fit and ensures greater transparency. Mahgoub explains how this hands-off approach creates incentives for countries to discover what really works and shows funders that their money is making a difference. The development community has already shown a strong interest in applying COD aid to health, education, and water sanitation. Learn more about the COD Aid initiative here. 

Helping Africa's Largest Country Shed $30 Billion in Debt

11/17/11

Johnny West

In this two-minute 2006 video clip, CGD’s Todd Moss explains how the Center helped to open the way for Nigeria to obtain $30 billion in debt relief, one of the world’s biggest ever debt deals. Moss tells how CGD research led the World Bank to reclassify Nigeria so it could become eligible for a favorable Paris Club deal. Completion of the deal enabled Nigeria to focus resources on social sector spending and policy efforts on promoting private sector growth and development. Former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, and Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank, praise CGD’s catalytic role. Learn more about CGD’s work on Nigeria debt here.

 

Measuring the Quality of Aid (QuODA) – Homi Kharas and Rita Perakis

11/14/11

On November 29th, aid donor and recipients will convene in Busan, South Korea at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. In this week’s Wonkcast, I speak with Homi Kharas, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Rita Perakis, program coordinator at the Center for Global Development, about the new 2011 Brookings-CGD Quality of Official Development Assistance assessment (QuODA) and how it can help to hold donors accountable to their own aid effectiveness pledges.

Homi explains that he and Nancy Birdsall began work on QuODA after aid effectiveness forums in Paris and Accra drew international attention to the importance of aid quality. Previously the debate had focused almost entirely on quantity and how well recipients used aid, rather than the problems and opportunities in how the aid was delivered.   

Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Fixing the U.S. Approach to Development in Pakistan (Event Video)

6/7/11

Pak Report

Fallout from the killing of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town has prompted an anxious reassessment of all facets of the complex, troubled alliance between the United States and Pakistan. A new report from CGD’s Study Group on U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan shines light on a crucial and too-often neglected aspect of the relationship: the aid, trade and investment policies that constitute America’s effort to support Pakistan’s development.

IMF Leadership Struggle and CGD Survey Results: Nancy Birdsall

5/31/11

The sudden resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn has sparked a global debate over the selection of the next head of the International Monetary Fund. French finance minister Christine Legarde, Europe’s nominee, has launched a round-the-world tour to promote her candidacy. Meanwhile, Agustin Carstins, the governor of the Bank of Mexico and the lone challenger so far to Europe’s renewed claim to lead the IMF, is seeking backing from European debtor nations and others by calling for greater flexibility in IMF bailout programs.

Against this background, CGD is pushing ahead with a survey on the selection process, qualifications and candidates for the IMF top job. I asked CGD president Nancy Birdsall, who has been arguing for a more open, merit-based selection process without regard for nationality, to join me on the show to share her views on the IMF leadership selection battle and the initial results from our survey.

(WONKCAST SPECIAL EDITION) Why U.S. Aid to Pakistan Still Makes Sense: Nancy Birdsall

5/9/11



Why are we providing some $1.5 billion per year in development assistance to a country that couldn’t be bothered to find bin Laden? Now that Osama is dead, what the heck are we still doing in Pakistan?

On this special edition of the Global Prosperity Wonkcast I asked these provocative questions of Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development.
For the past year, Nancy has led a high-level study group evaluating the U.S. development strategy in Pakistan, and has written a series of open letters. One of the main themes of the work has been that the United States should be modest and cautious about what development aid to Pakistan can achieve. Nonetheless, following a recent trip to Pakistan, and notwithstanding U.S. suspicions that elements of Pakistan’s security forces might have been complicit in hiding Bin Laden, Nancy maintains that sustaining aid to Pakistan is in the United States’ own national interest.

Nancy Birdsall on Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid

3/28/11

Nancy Birdsall

A little over a year ago, I invited Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center for Global Development, to join me on the Wonkcast to talk about her big new idea, Cash on Delivery Aid (COD Aid), an innovative approach to the delivery of foreign assistance. COD Aid has since gained a lot of traction, so I invited Nancy back to update us on recent developments, including a planned pilot program in Ethiopia.

[Listen to the Podcast]

For those new to the concept, I start by asking Nancy to explain the problems with traditional aid approaches, and how COD aid would solve these. Too often, she says, aid is given based on priorities set by funders who care more about how their money is spent than what outcomes it produces. COD Aid focuses on outcomes by making aid transfers contingent on yearly incremental improvements in an agreed indicator, such as the number of kids who complete primary school and take a test. (For much more on COD Aid, see here.)

Nancy Birdsall on The Role of Emerging Market Economies in the IMF

2/16/11

Bringing together voices from inside and outside the Fund, the IMF interviewed a number of government officials, NGO representatives, and IMF staff to discuss the new role of emerging market and low-income countries in the IMF.

In this video clip, CGD’s president Nancy Birdsall explains what compromises must be made before emerging market economies assume more control over the IMF. While the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) need to convince the US and Europe that they can be reliable global stewards, rich countries must realize that greater participation is in the long-term interests of all countries.

Rajiv Shah: The Modern Development Enterprise (Event Video)

1/20/11

Since being sworn in as the 16th administrator of USAID on January 7th, Dr. Rajiv Shah has taken a number of steps to position U.S. development efforts as a critical and dynamic component of U.S. foreign policy. From taking the lead on the Feed the Future initiative to internal reforms within USAID, Dr. Shah has demonstrated his leadership in making the agency a cutting edge actor in development, one that puts renewed emphasis on partnerships, innovation and learning, and evidenced-based results. Over the last 12 months, Shah also co-chaired the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) and played an active role in the formulation of President Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive on U.S. Global Development Policy.

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