March 31, 2020
The New Inequalities and People-to-People Social Protection
The lockdowns throughout the world are creating a new type of brutal inequality: between those who continue to have a steady source of income and those who do not.
CGD Policy Blogs
March 31, 2020
Can We Use Digital Technology to Cushion the Pandemic’s Blow—and in the Longer Run, Deliver on the SDGs?
As the world grapples with COVID-19, many countries have announced cash transfers. Delivering will require an enormous increase in state capacity to make payments to citizens.
March 31, 2020
The UK’s Integrated Review: A Most Timely and Promising Initiative
Last month, the UK government announced its commitment to “hold the largest review of the UK’s foreign, defence, security and development policy since the end of the Cold War,” with the review adopting an integrated, whole-of-government perspective.
March 31, 2020
Urgent Call for an Exit Plan: The Economic and Social Consequences of Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic
As governments proceed to pursue social distancing and lockdown measures, we urgently call for the development and communication of exit plans, increased testing to inform planning, and a rethink of global supply chains of critical items such as ventilation equipment.
March 30, 2020
More from Our Database on School Closures: New Education Policies May Be Increasing Educational Inequality
With more than 1.5 billion students are out of school, COVID-19 school closures could exacerbate existing inequities. In this post we analyse what we know (so far) about some of the drivers of inequity—and measures taken to address them—in different countries, using our open-access database.
March 30, 2020
Three Percent is a Big Difference
There is a little-noticed but important difference between the World Bank’s original goal for poverty reduction and the first of the subsequent UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG1). The difference is that the Bank’s goal was to reach a 3 percent poverty rate by 2030, while the SDG1 is to “eradicate” poverty by 2030, where “eradicate” means zero. Yet that 3 percent could well make a big difference
March 27, 2020
What’s the Latest Research on Education and Health in Africa? A Round-up from CSAE 2020
This week was supposed to be the annual conference for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford. Take a break from coronastressing and survey the impressive array of work that researchers are doing on education and health in Africa. We summarize more than 80 studies, including many on other topics with impacts on health or education.
March 26, 2020
Coordinating Country Aid: Bella Bird, Sharmarke Farah, and Jonathan Papoulidis on the CGD Podcast
Bella Bird of the World Bank, Sharmarke Farah of the government of Somalia, and Jonathan Papoulidis of World Vision join me to discuss the potential of country platforms for aid coordination—specifically the history and progress of Somalia's platform, the importance of country ownership, and how to make the best use of lessons learned.
March 26, 2020
Chinese Livestock Farms Struggle under COVID-19 Restrictions
After the COVID-19 outbreak began in December in Hubei Province, many Chinese villages were locked down to control the spread of the disease. The lockdowns have had a significant—and still not well-understood—impact on the agricultural sector.
March 26, 2020
Measuring the Impact of Coronavirus on Global SMEs: A Survey Instrument in Chinese, English, and Spanish
To better understand the toll of coronavirus, Xiaobo Zhang led a nationwide SME survey in China. In the interest of promoting further efforts in other countries, we are publishing the original Chinese-language survey, English- and Spanish-language versions, and a technical note from Zhang about the details of the survey in China.
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