Commentary

For the past 35 years, the World Bank has hosted the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, or ABCDE, showcasing internal and external research relevant to the Bank’s mission of a world free of poverty. This year, on July 9 and 10, CGD co-hosted the conference together with the World Bank.

On the CGD blog today, Ashley Pople and Stefan Dercon summarise the enormous benefits of a cash transfer paid to vulnerable Bangladeshis in anticipation of a flood that was predicted to occur based on modelling. Households that received the transfer were far less likely to go a day without eating, r...

Why do we see these improvements three months after the floods? We show that the anticipatory cash transfer increased the choices available to household before the flood peak. Compared to no-cash households, recipient households took more action in preparation for the incoming floods, including evac...

The recently advanced bipartisan DFC Modernization and Reauthorization Act of 2024 does more than reauthorize the Development Finance Corporation—it also includes several provisions that would shape the US development finance agency’s direction of travel for the next seven years. Standout elements i...

The work of USAID in Ukraine is also a sign of what foreign aid can accomplish when it uses the right tools to deliver. It is time that far more overseas assistance was allocated through recipient governments rather than Beltway contractors.

2024 is the year of the democratic “supercycle”: elections covering 4 billion people in over 70 countries are being held. Several major aid-giving countries already have or are expected to move toward the right of the political spectrum. What consequences for aid and development will that have?

The results of the recent French legislative elections signal that significant changes to the nation’s politics could be on their way. But the nature and timing of these changes remain uncertain. France’s global development policy, reaffirmed by the 2021 law on inclusive development and fight agains...