The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 40 of the world’s most powerful countries on policies that affect global development. In an increasingly interconnected world, decisions made by the richest countries have impacts far beyond their borders, and often disproportionately affect the world’...

The UK government has significantly expanded its development finance beyond ODA. The strategic use of guarantees, export finance, and other instruments is not a substitute for grants to the poorest, but instead offers the prospect of mobilising significant lending to developing countries, which can ...

Can at-scale, government-implemented parent training programs improve parenting practices and child development outcomes? This paper presents evidence on the effects of a low-cost, group-based early childhood education program that provided parent training and direct child stimulation in rural commu...

The COVID pandemic has had differential effects by gender, with women experiencing higher job and income loss, increased rates of domestic violence, and mounting care burdens. We examine the extent to which MDB COVID response projects incorporated gender elements and highlight the gaps in those effo...

Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) can be a low-cost mode of delivering teacher continuous professional development, although there are currently no studies measuring their effectiveness in boosting student learning. Observational studies suggest that teachers report that VCoPs can be a useful ...

With global challenges high on the international agenda and financing set to increase in the coming years, a big push on evidence, backed by dedicated resources, is essential. This note makes the case for a reinvigorated evidence agenda to boost the impact of financing for development and global pub...

Evidence suggests that women who use financial services have increased opportunities to earn income and exercise agency by accessing jobs, starting businesses, and gaining intra-household bargaining power. While financial inclusion experts and agents have begun to apply women’s economic empowerment ...