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Blog Post
May 01, 2024
At the core of African food insecurity are the continent’s notoriously low crop yields—the amount of produce farmers harvest relative to the area of land they farm. And one of the main reasons for low yield compared to other regions is that African countries, on average, use far less fertilizer to b...
Blog Post
April 16, 2024
Last month The Gambia’s National Assembly advanced a bill that, if ratified, would make it the first country to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation. These moves—supported by the predominantly male legislature—reflect the precarious nature of gains made in gender equality and have implication...
Blog Post
April 11, 2024
How schools are managed––things like budgets, staffing, and planning––matters for school effectiveness and children’s learning. But how easy is it to improve this (at scale) in poor countries? In a new CGD working paper we evaluate the impact of a large-scale school leader training programme impleme...
Blog Post
April 02, 2024
“Trade not aid” is a slogan that appeals to certain instincts on both the left and right. The idea being that rich countries can do more for economic development in poor countries by granting them market access than by sending charity. But will market access really stimulate economic growth in laggi...
Blog Post
March 27, 2024
After an almost two-year lull, sub-Saharan African issuers are clawing their way back into international markets. In close succession, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Kenya issued $4.85 billion worth of Eurobonds in the first quarter of 2024. The bond offerings were as much as six times oversubscribed, in...
Blog Post
March 11, 2024
The African Development Bank has been a prime mover in advancing a new form of capital for the multilateral development banks, called hybrid capital. If there is another item on the MDB reform agenda that is more of a win-win proposition than hybrid capital, we are not aware of it.
Blog Post
March 07, 2024
An extraordinary cascade of crises threatens Africa’s growth and economic stability. The incomplete economic recovery from the global pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, food and fuel inflation, rising debt distress, and Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza have all aggravated geopolitical and geo-econo...