It is standard fare for the G20 to issue lofty statements without any real muscle behind them, but the discordance in this year’s declaration is especially grating because explicitly and implicitly, the G20 have heaped exceptionally large burdens on the MDBs all in the context of what the leaders ac...

We’d been eagerly awaiting an update to DFC’s downloadable project data for insight into the development finance agency’s recent investments and overarching portfolio composition. A new drop finally came earlier this month detailing transactions through FY2022 and timed with the release of DFC’s ina...

A recent, thought-provoking blog by our colleague, Justin Sandefur, titled “How Economists got Africa’s AIDS Epidemic Wrong”, has sparked a debate about the historical role of cost-effectiveness analysis in assessing the investments of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and, imp...

On August 10, the White House submitted a $40.1 billion emergency supplemental request to Congress that includes $2.25 billion for the World Bank. The request for the Bank is well balanced: it would provide $1.25 billion to support “global challenges” (a more politically palatable term than climate ...

While donors are increasingly interested in both promoting evidence-based policymaking and advancing locally led development, the two agendas have often remained separate. This is a missed opportunity. A recent CGD working group underscored the value of locally immersed researchers and organizations...

On August 1, 2023, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched the new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the Acheson Auditorium in the State Department. Reorganizing government is unglamorous and rife with political hazards, but it has the potential to build a faster and better...

Last week’s Senate Appropriations Committee markup revealed a vast gulf dividing the Capitol with respect to development and diplomacy funding for the coming fiscal year. The two chambers’ State and Foreign Operations spending bill toplines are more than $9 billion apart, with the House coming in at...

USAID administrator Samantha Power’s aim to advance localization—with at least a quarter of funds going directly to local partners—has been widely lauded. A recent USAID report on localization indicates progress towards this goal, but major operational and contractual directions about how to impleme...