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Views from the Center

CGD experts offer ideas and analysis to improve international development policy. Also check out our Global Health blog and US Development Policy blog.

 

A meeting of the CGD working group on government contract transparency
October 15, 2018

From Open Oil to Open Everything? The 7 C’s of Using Open Models for Contract Negotiation

When companies and governments sit down to negotiate the terms for major deals with the private sector, workhorse spreadsheet models are what underpin projections of revenues, costs, and profits over time. Both companies and government agencies should have their own models. But in practice, on the government side, there is often no model at all. And even where there is, they are poorly understood, narrowly shared, and rarely if ever updated, leaving the public completely in the dark about how public assets and deals are managed.

Maya Forstater and Johnny West
Construction workers laying a road
October 5, 2018

Ten Years of Aid Transparency – Fulfilling the Dream of Accra

Aid and development transparency has come a long way in ten years. In this, the first of a two-part blog series, we look back at the origins of the aid transparency movement. We reflect on the original vision of those who conceived the idea, and the journey to date including some of the successes achieved along the way.

Owen Barder and Gary Forster
November 7, 2017

Tanzania's Macroeconomic Outlook: Less Growth, More Repression

As economic indicators deteriorate, the Tanzanian government has jailed an opposition leader for questioning the Bank of Tanzania's growth statistics. It's time for the World Bank and the IMF to speak up. If it's illegal to question a government's statistics, why should anyone trust them?

Justin Sandefur
July 24, 2017

Making Blockchain Technology Work for Development: The Need for Data and Dialogue

While blockchain-based solutions have the potential to increase efficiency and improve outcomes dramatically in some use cases and more marginally (if at all) in others, key constraints must be resolved before blockchain technology can meet its full potential in this space. Overcoming these constraints will require increased dialogue between the development and technology communities and a stronger commitment to collecting and sharing data about what’s working and what isn’t in pilot projects that use the technology.

Michael Pisa and Matt Juden
October 25, 2016

Making Gender Data Count: Can IATI Help?

CGD recently co-hosted a workshop with Data2X, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and Development Gateway on the potential of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) to comprehensively track aid flows and outcomes. Specifically, the discussion explored how IATI can be used to improve the availability of gender data and ensure that women and girls benefit equally from development investments. A full summary note of the workshop can be found here—and in short form, here’s what we learned from the discussion.

Megan O'Donnell and Tanvi Jaluka
May 21, 2015

Learning from Slovakia’s Experience of Contract Publication

Gabriel Sípos, Samuel Spác and Martin Kollárik of Transparency International Slovakia have just published an important and useful evaluation of that country’s contract publication regime.  The evaluation suggests proactive contract publication can be a popular, cheap, and effective tool for improving competition in government procurement.

Charles Kenny
May 19, 2015

Complete Contract Transparency as a Cost of Doing Business

In a blog post on the World Bank’s website, Marcos Siqueira lays out the case for total public contract transparency, including disclosure of unredacted contracts, associated financial deals, unredacted bids, unredacted amendments, performance reports, financial data of the project company, and fiscal commitments and risks.  

Charles Kenny

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