Commentary

On Wednesday, World Bank President Ajay Banga announced that the Bank will pursue an “all of the above” approach to energy projects in poor countries, including lending for natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and nuclear power. This marks a departure from its current policy of fundi...

This trade agenda could result in lasting harm to the world’s poorest countries while providing no discernible benefit to the US. Here's a more practical and effective approach.

There remains a lot of uncertainty regarding the status (and legality) of USAID award and staff terminations to date, and even more around the administration’s reorganization plans. But assume things work out as the administration hopes: USAID staff are all fired and the agency is shut down by the e...

In a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign aid policy, the Trump administration eliminated approximately 83 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s programs, with 37 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) particularly affected. According to a recent CGD blog, these countries are consid...

Next week’s IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings will be one of the more unsettled in recent memory, with an escalating trade war, a shaky global outlook, shrinking aid budgets, and a US administration resetting its global posture. Read reactions from CGD's expert on what they're paying particular attenti...

With donor priorities shifting and global crises competing for attention, the future of development aid—particularly for social sectors like education—has rarely been more uncertain. Given the dramatic reductions in US aid and impending cuts by other donors such as the UK, low- and middle-income cou...

There's a common concern that AI systems are black boxes prone to unexpected behavior, from Google recommending users eat rocks to Sora’s AI videos depicting gymnasts sprouting extra limbs. While some of these examples may seem benign, organizations using AI for development are rightly concerned abo...