Dear Friend,
Is the end of extreme poverty within our grasp? Some prominent people think so. With World Bank President Jim Kim’s address urging an end to extreme poverty by 2030, pronouncements from the UN High-Level Panel on the Post 2015 Development Agenda, and Bono’s TED talk, 2013 is shaping up to be a year of notable public declarations on the end of poverty (see CGD comments on them here, here, and here).
While the end of extreme poverty sounds ambitious, it is—as my colleagues and I say in this New York Times story—really a rather modest goal, partly because the international extreme poverty line is set so low, at a bleak $1.25 a day. Even if the world succeeds in ending poverty below this line, hundreds of millions of people will still struggle on the brink of destitution. And of course, ending income poverty is only a small step in the larger global challenge of ending the indignities and social abuses associated with income inequality.
Success is by no means assured. As my colleague Andy Sumner has pointed out, the geography of poverty is becoming more complex, with the vast majority of the very, very poor living either in stable middle-income countries with steady growth or fragile, unstable states with very little growth at all. These trends pose a challenge to donors: how can well-intentioned outsiders who see aid as their primary instrument help extremely poor people who increasingly reside in countries that either do not qualify for traditional aid or cannot effectively use it? These and other development challenges require more thoughtful and innovative policy solutions than ever before.
The Center for Global Development is helping to provide those solutions. As an agile, independent, and nonpartisan think tank, we conceive of and promote innovations in aid, trade, climate change, governance, global health, and migration that expand opportunities, reduce inequalities, and improve lives across a rapidly-shifting global landscape.
We are modest in size but our outsize impacts continue. My colleague Todd Moss and our friends at the ONE Campaign have been encouraging the US government to tackle energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Todd and our policy outreach team had worked behind-the-scenes providing policy ideas and technical advice for months to the White House, State Department, and OPIC. Last week, we were delighted to hear President Obama announce a $7 billion initiative to help increase electricity access in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania. This exciting new initiative could be expanded by an ambitious new bipartisan bill, the Electrify Africa Act, led by Representatives Royce, Engel, Smith, and Bass, which also drew heavily on quiet-but-effective CGD expertise and advice.
You can help us turn our ideas into action by joining the CGD Society today with a gift of $150 or more. The CGD Society serves as a nexus for well-informed policymakers, professionals, advocates, students, and global citizens like you, who share our deep commitment for a more prosperous, just, and safe world. Unrestricted support from Society members plays a critical role in our ‘ideas-to-action’ approach, providing CGD with the independence and flexibility we need to combine world-class policy analysis with innovative outreach and communications.
Your timing is critical. If you join the CGD Society now with a gift of $150 or more, your investment will be doubled by a special challenge pledge grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Here are just three examples of the activities that recently benefitted from CGD Society gifts:
- Using previously unexamined employment and other data from North Carolina, Michael Clemens showed that seasonal foreign farm workers add dollars to the US economy, helping to create jobs for native-born workers.
- Owen Barder, director of our Europe office, launched work on Development Impact Bonds, a new results-based development financing tool that offers private-sector investors a way to do good and do well.
- Drawing on their extensive research on trade flows and technological change, Arvind Subramanian and Aaditya Mattoo unveiled a new approach to climate change cooperation that shifts the focus from emissions cuts to investments in clean technology.
As a valued member of the CGD Society, you will gain preferred access to CGD public conferences, events, and meetings—opportunities to exchange ideas with CGD experts and leading figures in international policy, business, NGO, and media circles. You will be subscribed to our weekly newsletters and blogs, where we welcome your comments on our work. Society members are acknowledged on our website and receive complimentary copies of CGD books and reports published throughout the year.
Your support is an important component of our continued success. I hope that you will invest in CGD today and take advantage of the Hewlett Foundation’s commitment to match your gift dollar for dollar.
Warm regards,
Nancy Birdsall
President
Center for Global Development