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In two weeks the world will meet in Paris for a long-awaited summit on climate change known as COP 21. In the face of despicable attacks last week, the climate conference is to be an expression of hope and solidarity.
The Latin American Shadow Regulatory Committee, known as CLAAF for its Spanish acronym, warns today in its biannual statement that despite positive policies and safeguards, the region is facing external and local risks that could affect its economic and financial outlook.
Last Thursday, Under Secretary of the US Treasury Nathan Sheets spoke at CGD about anti–money laundering policies and the problem of de-risking, in connection with the launch of a new CGD working group report on the unintended consequences of anti–money laundering policies for poor countries. Sheets’s comments were consistent with the report’s key recommendations including the need for better data and for clearer guidance from financial regulators and standards setters.
Dear friends, colleagues, supporters of CGD,
I am writing to share with you my decision, after a healthy period of careful consideration, to step down as president of CGD in 2016, once a successor is in place. I’m pleased and excited about moving to a new chapter in my work life, as a senior fellow at CGD, with more time for research, writing and collaborating with incredible colleagues; and a new chapter in the other part of life, with more time and flexibility to travel and enjoy a large and still-growing extended family.
On Thursday, the leaders of 30 African countries signed a European Commission action plan tasking them–in exchange for a $2 billion “emergency trust fund”–to take back economic migrants looking to settle in Europe. If this sum is meant as a bribe, it is a bad deal. With remittances dwarfing foreign aid worldwide ($580 billion versus $135 billion in 2014), migration is a better deal for Africa than aid.
Some 2.4 billion people lack widely-recognized forms of legal identity. Over 600 million are children whose births have not been registered. How can wider access to identity – now recognized for the first time as a development goal in SDG target 16.9 -- help to achieve the SDGs?
The newly released Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) text reveals that US trade negotiators have finally caught up with the IMF and others on the question capital controls. Unfortunately, by allowing for appropriate uses of controls on “hot money,” the TPP may have created new enemies within the powerful US financial services lobby, further jeopardizing political support for the agreement.
Under the rubric of “buttressing sustainability,” the Turkish presidency has placed development at the center of its G-20 agenda, with a special focus on climate change finance. As G-20 leaders assemble this weekend, with the UN climate summit in Paris just two weeks later, the conversation will undoubtedly focus on how rich countries can make good on their 2009 Copenhagen commitment to mobilize $100 billion for developing countries by 2020. How can G-20 leaders make the Paris summit a success? Here are three suggestions.
Last week’s Girl Summit DC focused on child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM), the consequences of the practice, and solutions that will allow girls to delay marriage and reach their full potential. The event generated discussion about potential solutions, and raised a number of issues CGD will be tackling through its new Gender and Development Program over the coming years.
Financial inclusion is a key development focus in Turkey’s agenda for the G-20 summit beginning this weekend (November 15). I am pleased to note that the international community’s efforts to broaden financial inclusion have continued to gain momentum since the 2010 G-20 Summit in Seoul, where the leaders of G-20 endorsed the Financial Inclusion Action Plan. The plan was built on the G-20 Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion, which reinforced earlier recommendations in a 2009 report by CGD, Policy Principles for Expanding Financial Access.
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