Events
Upcoming
The World Bank Group committed nearly $60 billion for development projects and programs in fiscal year 2017. As the largest individual source for development finance in the world, the Bank frequently sets standards and adopts practices that spread both to other multilateral institutions as well as governments worldwide. In 2017, the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT), an independent office within the World Bank Group that investigates and pursues sanctions related to allegations of fraud and corruption in World Bank Group-financed projects, opened 51 investigations and issued 52 reports covering 68 Bank Group projects, while also providing preventative services and undertaking internal investigations. Through its Integrity Compliance Office, INT plays a preventive role by actively engaging sanctioned entities in pursuing rehabilitative measures, such as the implementation of integrity compliance programs.
In recent years, cash transfer programming (CTP) has emerged as one of the most significant innovations in international humanitarian assistance. The Cash Learning Partnership estimates that $2.8 billion was spent on cash and voucher programming in 2016, up 40% from 2015 and nearly double since 2014. Cash and voucher programming has demonstrated positive outcomes in addressing food security, access to education, healthcare, and economic recovery, in addition to supporting choice and dignity among affected populations.
Past
The United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) bold four-year Strategic Plan sets out to deliver solutions to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and build resilience to crises in order to help countries achieve the 2030 Agenda. But as the UN system grapples with funding challenges, as private finance is further mobilized for development, and as technological advances shape the development landscape, what is UNDP’s comparative advantage? We look forward to discussing these issues with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner and key stakeholders.
Given the changing global landscape, development finance – rather than aid – is poised to be the future of development. The spotlight is increasingly on Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to be catalysts in mobilizing needed financing. At a time when their record on development finance mobilization and development impact is still debated, they are nevertheless being asked to play a critical role in helping to fill huge financing gaps associated with meeting the SDGs. Several countries have established new DFIs and others are considering expanding DFI operations.
Corruption can siphon desperately needed resources away from development, but as some anti-corruption advocates have found, taking on vested interests can come at a great personal risk to their livelihoods—or even their lives. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s new book, Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, draws on her years as Nigeria’s Finance Minister to provide practical lessons on the difficult, sometimes-dangerous, always-necessary work of fighting graft and corruption.
Most countries in Latin America are currently reporting fiscal deficits and many have increased their external debt ratios. This has refocused attention on whether the region’s resilience to external shocks has deteriorated, and it has raised questions about Latin America’s ability to reignite growth and support development efforts.
Technological advances in fields such as artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to fundamentally alter prevailing economic trends. While the effects of these changes are the subject of great debate in the developed world, less discussed has been how they will impact the developing world. Speakers will explore what emerging technologies mean for both the traditional models of development and the future of job creation in developing countries.
The Center for Global Development and the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development will co-host a conversation with David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Donald Kaberuka, High Representative on the African Union Peace Fund, distinguished visiting fellow at CGD, and former President of the African Development Bank, and Jennifer Widner, professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, to discuss the need for a new global approach to state fragility. The Fragility Commission, which Cameron and Kaberuka chair, will be launching its report, Escaping the Fragility Trap, which makes the case for urgent action and outlines recommendations for how domestic and international actors can do things differently.
One-quarter of the world’s school-age children live in East Asia and the Pacific. In the past 50 years, some economies in the region have successfully transformed themselves by investing in the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their workforce. Through policy foresight, they have produced graduates with new levels of knowledge and skills almost as fast as industries have increased their demand for them. Yet, tens of millions of students in the region are in school but not learning. In fact, as many as 60 percent of students remain in systems that are struggling to escape the global learning crisis or in systems where performance is likely poor.
Since the early 2000s, Latin America has become increasingly integrated with the global economy, liberalizing trade and opening its capital account. These initiatives were prompted by the assumption that advanced economies would not impose barriers to the cross-border movement of goods and services. But today, a rising wave of protectionism not seen since the Great Depression challenges this assumption.
With this new reality as the backdrop, the Latin American Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Issues (CLAAF) will be meeting in Washington, DC to discuss how to tackle these emerging global economic challenges. Members of this committee include former finance ministers, former central bank governors, and other high-level economic officials and academics from across Latin America.
Some of the world’s poorest countries run the risk of building up a debt pile too high for their economies to support, according to the latest IMF report. The Center for Global Development will host the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss the causes for the debt build up and possible ways forward at the launch of Macroeconomic Developments and Prospects in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs) – 2018. This is the fourth annual report in a series by the IMF that looks at trends and socioeconomic indicators of LIDCs.
Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will join the Center for Global Development's Board member Tony Fratto to discuss her experience as president and lessons learned from Liberia’s relationship with development partners.
Join the Center for Global Development for a conversation with New York Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof. Fresh from a reporting trip to the Central African Republic with the winner of CGD’s and the New York Times’ “Win a Trip” contest, Kristof will discuss new and emerging humanitarian and global development challenges, the importance of journalism, and how to create and support the next generation of development journalists and practitioners. Too often, “development” is an abstract, faceless concept. At its best, journalism can bridge this gap and reveal the many millions affected by global poverty and inequality. In his columns, Nicholas Kristof puts a human lens on the stories of those who benefit from and work in global development, and the challenges they face.
Many organizations working on development champion women’s empowerment and equality as a core goal. But behind the scenes, how are these organizations living these values and what can they do better? On March 6, the Center for Global Development and Devex will host an event highlighting practical ways organizations can live up to their promises for a gender-equal workplace.
The Center for Global Development and Oxfam are hosting a discussion on the Politics of Pro-Worker Reforms with author Alice Evans. Alice will present her paper on the drivers of pro-worker reforms in Vietnam, including how rich countries can use the tools of trade and aid to support workers’ rights, social activism, and decent pay. Specifically, she examines the relative roles of the Better Work program and US demands for labor reform during negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in encouraging Vietnamese labor market reforms. The paper can be found here, and a blog summary here.
The Center for Global Development is hosting a discussion with Joshua Keating, staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs. Keating will discuss his forthcoming book, Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood.
In collaboration with the Salud Mesoamerica Initiative (SMI), CGD is pleased to invite you to a two-day conference highlighting lessons learned from SMI and how SMI’s experience can inform other programs in the future of healthcare. CGD has worked on results-based financing for years. From analyzing performance-based incentives to exploring cash on delivery aid to improving value for money for the Global Fund and its partners, we have been examining ways to maximize the impact of funding on health outcomes. We now have rigorous evaluations and evidence from SMI, a large-scale results-based funding program. This model public-private partnership allocates funding at the national level based on measurable improvements in coverage and quality of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child healthcare. It has brought together international donors, a development bank, regional bodies, national governments, and local stakeholders in an innovative partnership that rewards for health system strengthening and increased equity.
When RCTs are not an option, geospatial data can be a powerful tool for evaluating development projects – opening up opportunities to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why - at a substantially lower time and cost. Dr. Ariel BenYishay will provide an overview of the growing field of geospatial impact evaluation highlighting how the increasing availability of geo-referenced intervention and outcome data offers many new opportunities for research and evaluation across the development field that can be just as (if not more) effective as randomized control trials (RCTs). Dr. BenYishay will share a recent case study using geospatial data that measured the impacts of Chinese development activities on sensitive forests in Tanzania and Cambodia between 2000 and 2014 that shows how powerful this tool can be.