Commentary

In a city increasingly disenchanted with international market-based competition, one block on H Street in Washington DC remains committed to the cause. The World Bank’s procurement rules, which apply to its investment project financing, still mandate international competitive bidding for nearly all ...

The Trump Administration has signaled that it would like to shut down USAID and absorb its programs into the State Department. That proposal should involve Congress directly, as USAID is an independent agency established under legislation. And lawmakers might want to consult the international record...

We present some estimates for lives saved by US assistance worldwide, with illustrative estimates by recipient country. Our core estimates are for deaths prevented from HIV/AIDS, vaccine-preventable illnesses covered by Gavi, tuberculosis, malaria, and emergency/humanitarian relief. We suggest the n...

The bottom line: we estimate the cancelled awards represent somewhere over 34 percent of USAID programming. And notably, “life-saving” program areas like maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis are not spared from major cuts. But there’s a lot of guesswork in those estimates.

From March 3-5, over two dozen nonprofits and funders working at the intersection of AI and development convened in Bengaluru to kick off the AI for Global Development Accelerator. The initiative, which is a collaboration between the Agency Fund, OpenAI, and experts at the Center for Global Developm...

Headlines on aid and global development are grim right now. The decimation of USAID has been swiftly followed by major cuts announced in the UK, and smaller cuts planned from a raft of European donors. Many of these aid cuts will lead to people dying. CGD Non-Resident Fellow Ken Opalo writes “this i...

Would a steep cut to the UK’s aid budget in 2027, rather than a gradual reduction, better preserve flexibility, protect international commitments, and minimise project disruptions?