For the past 20 years, the Center for Global Development has distinguished itself by turning innovative ideas backed by rigorous research into action. In our Moonshot in a Minute video series, CGD experts have 60 seconds to share their big ideas to change minds, change policy, and change the world.
Through the challenges of the past two decades, the Center for Global Development has been there with cutting-edge solutions. Whether it was helping to establish a new full-service development finance institution in the United States or devising a global blueprint—called Advance Market Commitments—to speed up vaccine access in low- and middle-income countries that is now being applied to the COVID-19 crisis, the Center for Global Development was pushing ideas before they became popular, simply because they were good policy.
Learn more about some of our latest innovative ideas below:
- What if we could make the world safer for children everywhere?
- What if all countries could tackle antimicrobial resistance?
- What if the space sector could spark a new era of global prosperity?
- What if we could pave Africa's roads?
- What if women didn’t have to spend billions of hours working for free?
- What if we could eliminate lead poisoning as a threat to all children?
What if we could make the world safer for children everywhere?
In some regions, two thirds of children suffer physical violence and one third of girls suffer sexual abuse. To make matters worse, violence can derail not only the child’s potential future but also that of their country. At CGD, we are ramping up our work to keep children safe from violence, especially at school, by bringing local and international partners together and leading efforts to generate better evidence on effective solutions.
Related work
- Keep Adolescent Girls Safe in Africa, Both In and Out of School
- Safety First: Eliminate Violence to Transform Education
- Three Things We’ve Learned about Adolescent Girls’ Safety In and Out of School
What If All Countries Could Tackle Antimicrobial Resistance?
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global public health threats facing humanity. Over 1.25 million people die every year as a direct result of antimicrobial resistance. That’s why CGD is launching a multidisciplinary working group that will develop actionable policies that will fundamentally change the way antibiotics are developed and procured in low-and middle-income countries. Working together, we can expand access and encourage innovation while reducing unnecessary use, making the world safer for everyone.
Related work
- Building Better Purchasing Systems for Antimicrobials
- Putting the Current Market Structure for Antimicrobials Out to PASTEUR?
- Drug-Resistant Infections Are One of the World’s Biggest Killers, Especially for Children in Poorer Countries. We Need to Act Now.
- A Grand Bargain for Antimicrobial Procurement: Leveraging Purchasing Systems to Address AMR [Video]
What if the space sector could spark a new era of global prosperity?
All countries, developed and developing alike, can participate in and prosper from satellites and other space technology. Space-based capabilities include disaster-proof communications, better weather forecasting, remote banking, smart agriculture, and more. To accelerate global access to the space sector, CGD is creating a practical guide that will spotlight best practices, review possible approaches and enabling mechanisms, and share recommendations for program design.
Related work
- Using Space to Spark Global Prosperity
- Space-Based Telecommunications Are on Track to Provide Affordable Remote Broadband. Are We Ready?
- Space-based Options Could Help End Weather Roulette in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
- Recommendations for US-Africa Space Cooperation and Development
What if we could pave Africa's roads?
As Liberia's Minister of Public Works, Gyude Moore saw how the lack of paved roads reduces access to markets and social services and undermines the quality of life for many Africans. Here at CGD, we’re working on combining an advance market commitment with a prize challenge to incentivize the paving of roads, which will boost intra-continental trade in Africa, decrease overland travel time, and connect people to markets, schools, and health facilities.
Related work
- What if We Could Pave All of Africa's Roads?
- Rethinking the Infrastructure Gap in the Poorest Countries
- Protecting Africa’s Development Gains from the Weather
- Lagos to Mombasa Podcast: How Does Africa Attract Private Investment to Meet Its Development Needs?
- Advance Market Commitments
What if women didn’t have to spend billions of hours working for free?
Last year, women spent three times as many hours as men doing additional unpaid childcare.
CGD is working to identify the best policies and practices to improve the global care economy. Our evidence-based proposals are already being adopted by some of the influential decision makers - from the World Bank to the US government.
Related work
- IDA20 Gender Commitments: How Did “Cash, Care, and Data” Fare?
- Strengthening the Global Care Economy: A Roadmap for the Biden-Harris Administration
- The Global Childcare Workload from School and Preschool Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic
What if we could eliminate lead poisoning as a threat to all children?
800 million children around the world with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood—harming their health, stymying their learning, and preventing them from reaching their full human potential.
Yet here’s the good news: the almost complete elimination of lead poisoning in the US and Europe shows this is a solvable problem. With better research, more funding, parent/community awareness, and policymaker prioritization, we think the world could dramatically reduce—and eventually even eliminate—lead poisoning as a threat to all children. And we think we owe it to the world’s children to get started immediately.