Commentary

This blog makes the case for how to conduct a good-faith, smart aid review in service of the administration’s goals and the American people.

This last week, a critical pillar of global health has been thrust into jeopardy due to executive action. Secretary Rubio has the power to resume funding to PEPFAR tomorrow by issuing a waiver to the pause.

It’s tough to ignore AI. There’s constant press about it, and everyone from USAID to the UN Secretary General has been putting forth positions on the topic. Beyond the high-level attention, a growing number of studies have highlighted AI's potential to impact key development outcomes. For example, r...

This month, Bloomberg reported discussions within the Trump administration for revamping the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as a sovereign wealth fund. As celebrants of DFC’s creation and close watchers of the agency, we have thoughts.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation celebrated its 20th birthday last January, but Congress’s gift to the agency didn’t arrive until late December. It came in the form of the MCC Candidate Country Reform Act, signed into law as part of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The measure pro...

My recently published note on the East Asian Miracle made me wonder why South Asian “turtles”¬—economies that have shown relatively slow growth—show no signs of overhauling East Asian “hares.” Starting from roughly comparable levels of per capita GDP in the mid- 1960s, South Asian countries have lag...

In this blog we introduce the findings from our new policy paper, in which we examine the mounting pressures on development agencies and outline five key dimensions of agency effectiveness. This paper marks the first piece of our new research series on “agency effectiveness” and lays the groundwork ...