Ideas to Action:

Independent research for global prosperity

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

Finding the Funding for GAVI: Amanda Glassman

6/13/11

Amanda Glassman

My guest on this show is Amanda Glassman, research fellow and director of CGD’s Global Health Program. I recorded this Wonkcast with her last week, just ahead of the first pledging session for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI). 

GAVI is a coalition of private foundations and donor country governments who work to increase the availability of vaccines, a highly cost-effective health intervention that is chronically under provided. Among other mechanisms, GAVI buys the vaccines at discount by purchasing in bulk, then passes the savings onto poor countries and expanding coverage. Over the past 10 years, GAVI estimates it has saved 5 million children from vaccine vaccine-preventable diseases, an accomplishment which Amanda considers to be remarkable.

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.

U.S. Disaster Assistance and Migration Policy: Michael Clemens

6/6/11

Michael Clemens

When a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti last year the U.S. government and public moved quickly to aid the survivors. The response was swift and compassionate. But America did not do something simple and low-cost that could have helped the survivors of this horrible event. It did not crack open the door and admit a small number of them to the United States.



On this week’s Wonkcast, I’m joined by senior fellow Michael Clemens to discuss why US immigration policy should be part of the United States’ official humanitarian response to natural disasters. Michael, who leads CGD’s work on migration and development, recently commissioned a working paper to figure out what if anything can be done to open a channel for limited numbers of disaster refugees to enter the United States.


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.

Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of Child Deworming in Kenya (Event)

5/27/11

Gilbert Burnham

The Center for Global Development is proud to have hosted Prof. Michael Kremer (Harvard) and Sarah Baird (GWU) as part of the Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar (MADS) series.  They presented the long-term, follow-up results of Prof. Kremer's research on deworming in Kenyan schools that shows significant, long-term gains in employment and earnings among dewormed children.

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.


What’s Up with the U.S. Global Health Initiative? Nandini Oomman

5/17/11

When President Obama created the Global Health Fund (GHI) in May 2009, health policy gurus welcomed it as a pioneering effort to make US involvement in global health more coherent, strategic and systematic. Two years later, there has been some modest progress but questions abound about how the initiative will take shape and deliver results.

Nandini Oomman, senior associate at the Center for Global Development, joins me on the Wonkcast this week to assess the GHI’s progress on its second birthday. Her mounting impatience is nicely summed up in a blog post she wrote about the anniversary: Happy 2nd Birthday to the U.S. Global Health Initiative: Next Time I Want a Goody Bag!

More Than Good Intentions  How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty

5/16/11

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Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an new approach to global poverty reduction that combines behavioral economics with worldwide field research.Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an new approach to global poverty reduction that combines behavioral economics with worldwide field research. Their book takes readers into villages across Africa, India, South America, and the Philippines, where economic theory collides with real life. They show how small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of poor people. More Than Good Intentions provides a new way to understand what really works to reduce poverty; in so doing, it reveals how to better invest charitable gifts and official assistance to make a difference in the lives of poor people.

(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.

Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries: Kimberly Elliott

5/9/11

This week, 10,000 representatives from around the world will head to Istanbul for the fourth decadal meeting of the UN conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV).  Trade is likely to have a prominent place on the agenda. I invited senior fellow Kimberly Elliott, author of Delivering on Doha: Farm Trade and the Poor, for her views on the conference.

“Duty free quota free access to rich country markets will definitely be one of the key asks of these LDC countries in Istanbul,” says Kim. “But I don’t expect there to be much progress, principally because the United States has shown no interest in moving on this.”

Impact Evaluations and the 3ie: William Savedoff

5/2/11

Efforts to design better aid programs often are hampered by the failure to evaluate what works—and what doesn’t—in existing programs. Today, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and other important efforts are helping fill the evaluation gap.

My guest this week is senior fellow Bill Savedoff. He was a member of the Center for Global Development’s 2004 Evaluation Gap Working Group, led by Ruth Levine, that urged and helped create a new institution for impact evaluation: the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, or 3ie (“Triple I E”). Following a recent CGD speech by Esther Duflo on the importance of impact evaluation, I sat down with Bill to talk about how new impact evaluations are shaping development projects and policy.

Growing Business a Development Priority? (Event Video)

4/27/11

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A growing share of the Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) business involves private firms. Lending to, investing in and guaranteeing private firms accounted for more than a third of MDB financial operations in 2008, up from less than a fifth at the start of the decade. What’s driving this surge? Is it appropriate to use scarce global public resources to invest in private firms? Is it good for development? This new CGD report by Guillermo Perry, a former finance minister in Colombia and World Bank chief economist for Latin America, examines this trend. The report identifies the activities, firms, sectors and countries benefiting from the MDB’s private sector operations and explores whether it catalyzes or competes with private financial markets. Perry explores how governments and private firms can benefit, while avoiding conflicts of interest. He concludes the report with a proposed agenda for MDB-private sector activity.

Carbon Taxes After All? A Conversation with William Nordhaus (Event Video)

4/21/11

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On Thursday, March 24, the Center for Global Develompent hosted William Nordhaus of Yale University for a conversation on the efficacy of carbon taxes and other leading carbon reducing strategies. Professor Nordhaus is one of the world's leading experts on the economics of climate change and a leading proponent of carbon taxes.

The Climate Change Vulnerability Index: David Wheeler

4/18/11

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Rapid climate change is upon us, and governments, multilateral organizations, and development agencies are preparing to dole out billions of dollars in adaptation assistance. Nevertheless, little research has gone into calculating which countries are most vulnerable to global warming.

On this Wonkcast, I'm joined by David Wheeler, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, who created an index for determining which countries should be prioritized when the money starts to flow. His new paper, "Quantifying Vulnerability to Climate Change: Implications for Adaptation Assistance", provides an index for comparison of cross-country vulnerability to some of the most extreme climate threats. An accompanying map makes it easy to see which countries will be hit hardest.

Innovation in Vaccine Financing: Assessing Progress and Envisioning Future Directions (Event Video)

4/8/11

Alice Albright

In a recent speech, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said “The evidence is clear: vaccines are the best public health investment we can make.” As the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) prepares for its June 2011 pledging conference, CGD hosted a panel to look back at global efforts to support vaccination funding in developing countries over the past decade and reflect on lessons learned and future potential. The panel also looked to the issues and challenges facing vaccination financing in the 2010s.

What We Know about Health and Health Services in North Korea (Event Video)

4/7/11

Gilbert Burnham

Little is known about health status and health services in North Korea. The reports that are published are often based on a small number of interviews about events from some years past (Amnesty International), or based on manipulated data (World Health Organization). The reports of defectors and increasing information from inside North Korea paints a picture of continued malnutrition, though less than the 1990s. Health indicators continue to deteriorate in North Korea. There are widespread infections such as tuberculosis, typhoid (and paratyphoid), and hepatitis, suggesting a collapse of public health infrastructure. Increasingly medicines are available principally in markets from private vendors. Hospitalization is common and requires gifts to doctors which may exceed 100% of the patient's monthly household income. Drug problems from locally manufactured methamphetamine is an increasing problem, and reports suggest it is widely available.

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