December 4, 2019
Introducing the "Stretch Fund"
We need a new public-private actor to fill the gap in the development finance architechure. Nancy Lee and Dan Preson have a solution: The Stretch Fund.
Views from the Center
November 18, 2019
Comments on World Bank Global Platform to Strengthen Education Financing
Last week, the World Bank began a new initiative to tackle education financing challenges. Below are CGD Visiting Fellow Barbara Bruns' prepared remarks at the Global Platform for Education Finance launch.
November 12, 2019
The Future of IFAD Assistance
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is facing big questions about how best to respond to evolving financing needs in its client countries. But does it currently have the right financial model to contribute meaningfully to the SDG 2 agenda?
October 31, 2019
Strengthening Revenue Performance in Africa Requires Tough Political Decisions
Following the second roundtable held with African finance ministers and central bank governors, Sanjeev Gupta and Mark Plant explore tax concessions and the challenges of meeting the targets for domestic resource mobilization set under the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
October 29, 2019
Too Small to Succeed: Reforming the AfDB’s Financial Governance
Why isn’t the African Development Bank Group bigger? Clemence Landers and Nancy Lee have a proposal to reform the bank and increase its size and impact.
October 25, 2019
How Do We Make Finance Work for Women? Start by Listening to Them
There’s been a lot of energy around “gender lens” investing in recent years, and for good reason.
October 24, 2019
HIPC with Chinese Characteristics: Why Yesterday’s Debt Relief Is the Wrong Point of Reference for Today’s Crises
Concerns about rising debt risks in developing economies were front and center at the annual meetings. HIPC is a useful reference point as we talk about a new round of debt crises. But thanks to the rise of China as a lender, the creditor community today looks much different from the HIPC creditor community—with implications for any resolution to a debt crisis.
October 22, 2019
The Interdependence Between Multilateral Development Banks and Middle-Income Countries
Every MDB is now confronted with the question of what to do with middle-income countries, given the need to focus on the Sustainable Development Goals in general, but very concretely on goal #1—poverty eradication—which will be difficult to achieve based on recent trends. MDBs are very important for MICs, but at the same time MICs are vital for MDBs. This is essentially a two-way relationship. Without MICs, MDBs will be less innovative, will have less knowledge and, importantly, will require more capital from shareholders. I will explain why I believe so in this short note.
October 21, 2019
The Wise Persons Group Report on Europe’s Development Finance Architecture: Merger, Acquisition, or Reinvention?
Earlier this month, the long-awaited report on the future of the European financial architecture for development was released. Are the report’s proposals feasible? And crucially, do they offer a magic bullet to the intractable state of the European development finance system? I argue that although some of the proposals go some way towards offering a solution to the current problem, politics will undoubtedly trump logic, and we will—at least in the near future—be left with a stalemate.
October 15, 2019
Who Needs Financing More Than Businesses? Refugees
Finance exists to solve certain basic problems. The world’s displaced confront more of them than anyone.
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