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Press Center
Welcome to the Center for Global Development's Press Center!
The Center for Global Development’s communications team is standing by to assist reporters on deadline. Our experts can provide analysis, commentary, data, and unique expertise on the global development and economic issues that are driving the news cycle. You can search for experts by their area of expertise here. To arrange an interview or to be added to our press list, please contact Eva Grant, press secretary, by phone or email at +1-202-416-4027 and egrant@cgdev.org.
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CGD in the News
May 4, 2020
Article
From the article:
“President Trump’s attacks on the World Health Organization (WHO) over the coronavirus pandemic are shining a spotlight on the diplomatic balancing act the agency faces as it struggles to navigate the interests of member states that are often working at cross purposes.
The chronically underfunded agency has been at the forefront of the global response to the pandemic, winning praise from public health experts who derided its poor performance just a few years ago during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
But many of those same experts say this pandemic has highlighted the fact that the WHO has few real powers. While it can use a megaphone to encourage member nations to take action, agency officials have almost no authority to enforce their guidance — especially when it comes to large nations like the United States or China.
‘The current governance situation requires the World Health Organization to maximize the agreement or assent of the most countries possible to the kinds of actions it takes. So it's always by necessity going to be the lowest common denominator,’ said Amanda Glassman, executive vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. ‘They have several strategies. One is buttering up, and the other is calling out and shaming…’”
May 4, 2020
Article
From the article:
“…Unlike many countries in the region, Jamaica never fully shut down its economy amid the global pandemic, even as it aggressively enforced social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The decision has come with a steep price, and serves as a cautionary tale for others in the region that are starting to ease lockdowns and reopen their economies as cases and fatalities continue to climb.
‘There is no very right answer,’ when it comes to reopening, said Amanda Glassman, executive vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit Washington-based think tank that focuses on international development.
The key concern is the reproduction rate of the virus. If it can be kept low enough, the disease will dissipate and ‘burn out’— as long as there are no new cases being imported, she said.
‘Of course, all of that depends on the ability of governments to catch [those who are ill] and to do the contact tracing really aggressively,’ added Glassman, an expert on health and social protection in Latin America who previously worked for the Inter-American Development Bank…”
May 4, 2020
Article
From the article:
“…'[DFIs] need a combination of risk-sharing, capital and new flexibility to respond beyond their capacities in the current stressed situation,” the experts write. “DFIs are the European institutions in the best position to act swiftly in support of the private sector in vulnerable countries by providing emergency credit lines to client institutions before it is too late, something no other institution can do.’
Not everyone is so sure. Mikaela Gavas from the Center for Global Development think tank said it was “rather strong” to portray DFIs as the vital front line in the struggle to preserve African firms.
‘It is going to be local governments and national banks that support their private sectors best,’ Gavas told Devex. DFIs “can certainly play a role,” she said, but cautioned that any capital increases should be contingent on DFIs taking greater risk and being innovative.
The call to action comes at a sensitive time in Brussels, after the European Commission recently decided to postpone budget guarantees intended for smaller DFIs until its next 2021-2027 budget cycle…”
May 4, 2020
Article
From the article:
"'We’re thinking about the vaccine, but what if the vials it is stored in, or rubber stoppers in the vial or the plungers in the syringes become the constraint?' said Prashant Yadav, who studies health care supply chains at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
Timing the orders of medical products like syringes and all the raw materials required to make them will be essential. Medical device manufacturers could increase inventory or find alternative supply chains for products that are running low, but everything will need to be systematically planned. Adding the capacity to make millions more syringes could take a manufacturer as long as 18 months, for example.
'The COVID-19 pandemic is creating industrywide challenges, including expected delays in inventory replenishment for certain products,' said Lucy Bradlow, a spokeswoman for Cardinal Health, a manufacturer that makes vials and syringes as well as other medical supplies."
April 28, 2020
Article
From the article:
“The U.S. is not even “remotely prepared” to re-open, an expert said on Tuesday as some states are set to lift lockdowns that had been imposed to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
‘We’re not remotely prepared neither in terms of the epidemiology of the outbreak in the United States, nor in terms of our preparedness capacities to begin suppressing this virus in ways other than through social distancing,’ said Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, a think tank. His expertise includes global outbreak preparedness.
The U.S. has reported more than 988,000 confirmed cases of infection and a death toll of over 56,000 so far, according to John Hopkins University…”
April 28, 2020
Article
From the show:
"Globalization has played a strange role in the cycle of pandemics. At first, it made the world more vulnerable to infectious disease. Then, in the nineteenth century, it fueled lifesaving advances in medicine. And those advances, in turn, accelerated globalization further and made the world more and more vulnerable to pandemics like coronavirus.
So, should we give up on globalization? Trade less, travel less, become less interconnected?
Today on the show, we talk to Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. He's finishing up a book on the past and future of infectious disease. And one of the most provocative arguments in his book is that instead of trying to reverse globalization, the world should actually embrace it as a powerful force in fighting against infectious diseases."
April 24, 2020
Article
From the article:
“…The World Bank predicts that remittances — money sent home by migrant workers, which people in many countries depend on — could fall by nearly 20%, the sharpest decline in recent history, as unemployment grows and wages fall.
However, Ian Mitchell, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, noted that the drop in ODA is not a given. The 0.7% target ‘is minimum, not a maximum,’ he said via email, highlighting that the government often exceeds its 2% defense spending target.
‘We’re in a global crisis where we’ve rightly massively expanded domestic U.K. spending in spite of the economy shrinking — public [spending] will increase by some £85.5 billion, or 10% according to the OBR — and it follows that poor countries will need support to save lives too,’ he said.”
April 23, 2020
Article
From the article:
“…Clean running water and soap are in such short supply that only 15 percent of sub-Saharan Africans had access to basic hand-washing facilities in 2015, according to the United Nations. In Liberia, it is even worse — 97 percent of homes did not have clean water and soap in 2017, the U.N. says.
‘The things that people need are simple things,’ said Kalipso Chalkidou, the director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development, a research group. ‘Not high-tech things.’
Though limited testing means it is impossible to know the true scale of infections on the continent, several African countries report growing outbreaks. A snapshot of the situation on Friday showed that Guinea’s cases were doubling every six days; Ghana’s, every nine. South Africa had more than 2,600 cases; Cameroon, nearly 1,000.
Of course, there are big disparities among Africa’s 55 countries, too. Ventilators are much more plentiful in South Africa, which has a big economy and a relatively strong health infrastructure, than in Burkina Faso, one of the earliest West African countries to be hit by the coronavirus. At last count, it had 11 ventilators for 20 million people…”
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