The current World Bank model focuses on reducing poverty and promoting equitable growth, while considering environmental and social sustainability. Programming is country-driven and resources allocated according to client government priorities, leaving global public goods (GPGs), particularly climat...

The climate financial intermediary funds (FIFs) are one of the largest sources of grant and concessional finance for climate, especially for middle-income countries, but there are significant challenges at the systemic level and differing performance across FIFs. We recommend consolidating funds in ...

Rigorous, explicit, evidence-informed priority-setting (EIPS) in healthcare is an essential instrument for achieving value for money. Growing pressures on healthcare budgets, combined with the post-COVID-19 fiscal crises and plateauing development assistance for health, make institutionalising EIPS ...

Health aid has helped domestic financing achieve historic gains in global health but there is much still to be done. Six major issues prevent aid from being more effective, fit for the future, and aligned with country priorities: funding volatility, aid fragmentation, the displacement of domestic fi...

Bangladesh’s Primary Education Stipend Program provides stipends for 13 million primary schoolchildren to 10 million mothers. In 2017 the method of payment changed from cash to mobile money. This study considers the experience of the mothers with the shift to mobile money, and to the change in payme...

This study surveys Kenya's electronic payment system for social benefits, Inua Jamii, from the perspective of recipients, including their views on convenience and the benefits from competition. It also considers whether these digital G2P payments programs have increased financial inclusion more gene...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is addicted to fossil fuels, like the rest of the world. An energy transition will require a coordinated global shift in both the supply and demand for fossil fuels and cleaner energy, and multilateral institutions can play an important role. These institution...

This paper identifies and explores a number of challenges in using international public climate finance effectively towards contributing to low-carbon and resilient growth in lower- and middle-income countries.

This paper studies the formal labor market integration and firm creation of Venezuelan immigrants and refugees in Colombia between late 2019 to late 2021. It applies a novel framework to identify segments of the Colombian economy where Venezuelan immigrants and refugees are lagging behind.

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic—in the US and around the world—highlights the potential feasibility and importance of biomedical R&D for global health and welfare. Drawing from this experience and momentum, this paper argues that the US should deepen its engagement and ambition in global hea...