April 30, 2009
After 100 Days, What About Development?
President Obama has generally gotten high marks for his performance after 100 days in office. But the development community has to be disappointed. Why?
Views from the Center
April 30, 2009
A Transformational North Africa/Middle East Solar Power Program: Bright Prospect for the Clean Technology Fund
This is a joint post with Joel Meister and Matt Hoffman.
The May 11-12th meeting of the Clean Technology Fund’s Trust Fund Committee will consider a proposed $6-8 billion solar thermal power program for North Africa and the Middle East, according to the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds website. The concept note, Clean Technology Fund: Concept Note for a Concentrated Solar Power Scale-up Program in the Middle East and North Africa Region, cites CGD research on solar radiation potential in the region and is the most encouraging sign yet of CTF stakeholders’ commitment to clean energy development.
April 30, 2009
Two Tails Wagging, Where's the Dog?
After raising expectations both on the Obama campaign trail and during the transition period that development would really not just rhetorically be a priority and an equal partner with diplomacy and defense in our national security apparatus, two notable actions occurred this week, just under the 100 day mark.
April 29, 2009
One Hundred Days: Where is the USAID Administrator?
One hundred days into the Obama administration many in the development community are asking: where is the USAID administrator? Impatience is mounting for news of leadership on development policy and reform of U.S. foreign assistance. President Obama named his picks to lead defense and diplomacy—Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton—well before he took office.
April 28, 2009
The Potential Economic Impact of Pandemic Flu on Poor Countries: More Serious than a Sneezing Pork Chop
This post originally appeared on the CGD's Global Health Policy blog. The impact of this pandemic flu outbreak has little to do with pigs. And a lot to do with people. Every time there is a global flu epidemic, we seem to want to blame it on something. In 1918 we called it the Spanish flu, though Spaniards had nothing to do with it. For the last few years we blamed it on birds, calling it the “avian flu” as if it were the birds’ fault. Now we’re blaming it on pigs, by calling it the “swine flu”. In an effort to appease the public, several countries have banned the import of pork! None of this makes any sense. When was the last time you saw a sneezing pork chop?
April 28, 2009
New Poll Confirms that Congress Doesn't Listen to Voters When Lavishing Subsidies on Farmers
When I was writing my book, Delivering on Doha: Farm Trade and the Poor, I came across a 2004 poll showing that Americans, including in farm states, support subsidies only for small farmers and only in bad years. Last week, another poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland was released showing that attitudes haven’t changed. The reality, as I discussed in my book, is that the top 20 percent of recipients receive 80 percent of all payments.
April 27, 2009
CGD's Steve Radelet Testifies on U.S. Assistance to Africa and Calls for Reform
The global economic crisis presents a challenge and an opportunity to do better with U.S. assistance to Africa said CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health last week. Not surprisingly, doing better in Africa requires the same steps towards broad U.S.
April 24, 2009
The IMF's New Face
After listening to Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s speech at the CGD-SAIS conference on April 23, I almost had to pinch myself: new lending instruments without conditionality and without pre-established limits? Stand-by agreements with social conditionality—that is, requirements designed to protect the poorest? These are very important steps for an institution, which until recently, developing countries saw as the “bad cop” for decades.
April 22, 2009
Continuing Efforts to Make Trade Work for Development
The drumbeat for reform of U.S. trade preference programs continues to build. I sent a policy memo to U.S.
April 22, 2009
The Media Blitz of Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid is Far from Dead
I had the privilege of speaking at Dambisa Moyo’s first Washington DC event, held recently at the Cato Institute (watch the webcast here). Her book Dead Aid is a full-frontal attack on aid to Africa (and has attracted an extraordinary amount of media attention). As much of my own work has been highly critical of the aid business, it was somewhat unusual (and a little awkward) to find myself mostly defending foreign aid.
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