Commentary

On Friday, the administration sent a memo on the future of USAID to the agency’s staff. It makes clear that the strategy continues to be “cut and reorganize first, ask permission later”—putting forward a vision for the full abolition of USAID. Regarding reorganization, remaining USAID staff have re...

As the USAID cuts shutter projects worldwide, Chinese officials are certainly making the most of the opportunity. The country has stepped in to fund child literacy, nutrition, and landmine clearance programs in Cambodia previously backed by the US and has made overtures to Nepal and Colombia about f...

Last week I was at the annual conference of the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) in Oxford. In all there were about 259 papers presented, which may make it the biggest development economics conference in the world (NEUDC, the largest development economics conference in North America ...

In a list of thousands of terminated USAID awards that was sent to Congress this week is a devastating cut suggesting the Trump administration might be planning to end funding to Gavi, the global initiative that helps provide life-saving vaccines for children in the poorest countries in the world. T...

CGD's Gyude Moore speaks with Hannah Ryder of Development Reimagined and Yunnan Chen of ODI Global about the evolution of China's relationship with Africa, the opportunities presented by FOCAC 9, and where the money should go to do the most good.

Last week, we published an estimate of cuts to USAID programs at the sectoral level based on two leaked documents covering cancelled and retained awards. Since then, a new version of the terminated and retained awards list was shared with Congress. Using that updated list, we revise our earlier sect...

According to a recently leaked document, the Trump administration is considering reorganizing the US foreign assistance architecture, with an eye to merging MCC, DFC, and USTDA.