CGD president Nancy Birdsall was featured in an AlMasryAlYoum article about aid to Egypt.
From the Article
After Obama announced that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would be helping support democracies in Egypt and Tunisia, a coalition of non-governmental organizations, along with the Central and Eastern Europe Bankwatch Network, asked bank shareholders to say “no” to the bank’s altered mission, according to reports in US media.
The opposing groups said that the decision was premature, as it was not clear what type of governments would emerge in Egypt and Tunisia. They also criticized the bank’s work in assisting the development of democracy in Eastern Europe.
But according to Nancy Birdsall, an economist and founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington DC, lending money to Egypt and Tunisia is a risk that should not be shied away from, though making sure the lending has a positive impact could take work.
“The point would surely be to support the economic reformers inside the new governments that will be working to dismantle insider corruption and introduce competition and other reforms,” she wrote in a blog post.
“Good government does not appear like manna from heaven. It is everywhere a work in progress.”