In an attempt to curtail corruption countries have implemented public sector reforms to increase the wages of government officials. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions on corruption is mixed. In a recent paper, we find that differences in public sector wage inequality pl...

The investment case for bolstering global systems for pandemic preparedness and response is clear. Yet, COVID-19 exposed gaping holes in our collective ability to respond to pandemic threats. And even after more than 6.9 million deaths from COVID-19 and trillions in economic losses, financing and po...

Under a new Memorandum of Understanding, USAID, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and CGD plan to partner in exploring locally led evaluation and evidence generation approaches, with an initial focus in sub-Saharan Africa. An opportunity to advance evidence-informed policymaking and locally ...

Earlier this week, my sister sent a message to the family chat which just read “Harry Belafonte”. At first, it hadn’t occurred to me that he might have passed away (surely, he was immortal?), and I just assumed she was randomly thinking about what a genius and a brilliant man he was, so I responded ...

Despite a steady rise in literacy rates over the past 50 years, there are more than 750 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write. While policymakers and academics have primarily focused on educating children, and for good reason, adult learning and education programs are an important compo...

At CGD, we have been closely watching the development of the new Pandemic Fund which aims to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Pandemic Fund recently published a Results Framework to guide project-level moni...

The IMF should be applauded for implementing the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). That said, it is highly improbable that extending RSF financing to an additional 44 countries will be feasible in the next one or two years as it would require a major change in the mindset of borrowing co...