Ideas to Action:
Independent research for global prosperity
Chale Espinosa sent me these scans of a full page ad placed in the Nicaraguan paper La Prensa yesterday by 25 international funders of microfinance. They are evidently worried about the growing political power of a movement for non-payment or cancellation of microcredit debts. I cannot provide much more context because I lack it myself. Perhaps others can fill it in. English text courtesy of Google Translate below.
Last Friday, Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lugar (R-IN), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, sent a letter to President Obama underscoring their "concern about the direction of U.S.
I’m excited to announce the start of the FY10 MCC country selection process and with it the MCA Monitor’s annual control of corruption indicator assessment. The paper analyzes how countries fared on the control of corruption indicator, the one “hard hurdle” indicator for MCA funding eligibility. It also touches upon what’s sure to be a provocative issue this round: compact-eligible countries that have graduated into the LMIC pool where funding is constrained. Enjoy this initial insight into the upcoming selection pro
Owen Barder sets out four reasons why innovative aid finance mechanisms are good in a recent terrific blog.
In 2002, John Williamson and I proposed that the gold at the IMF be used to deal with global public good (bad) of unsustainable debt of poor countries – and in particular to allow the IMF to finance suspension of debt service to the IMF and the multilateral development banks following an external shock.
One of the few bright spots in the climate negotiations was the news that the governance of climate funding has received some attention in the run-up to the Pittsburgh G-20. Much needs to be settled, but at least the issue is on the table.
In all the excitement last week around the impending announcement of the MCC CEO nominee, I forgot to post this blog giving a round of applause to the organization on its transparency A-game. Readers may recall the challenge we posed to the MCC back in May when, after commending them on publishing their project
This is a joint posting with Kimberly Elliott and also appeared on the Huffington Post.
With one important reservation, we welcome last week’s EU proposal that the upcoming Pittsburgh G-20 Summit “should adopt the “Everything But Arms” (EBA) initiative without delay to support people in developing countries suffering from the crisis.” The EBA nominally provides 100 percent duty-free, quota-free market access for exports from least-developed countries, so suggesting that the rest of the G-20 replicate it is clearly in line with a Sept. 2 letter sent by members of the CGD Global Trade Preference Reform Working Group. The letter called upon:
Uri Dadush at the Carnegie Endowment provides an excellent reader-friendly summary of the agenda and issues the G-20 leaders will face in Pittsburgh this week. His fourth of four challenges is for the leaders to develop a long-term agenda – and a long-term agenda implies ipso facto a development agenda.
The Boston Globe has an article today on what the latest impact studies tell us about microfinance. I really do think this article is well-done---clear-eyed and clearly written. But maybe I'm biased by being quoted in it.
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