By 2003, DFIF was one of the world’s most influential international development organizations thanks to a combination of effective political leadership, wider government backing, clear objectives supported by rigorously deployed resources, and large numbers of capable and motivated staff.

Looking back on the run up to the creation of DFID in 1997, those involved tend now to tell two somewhat conflicting stories: first that it was simply “in Labour’s DNA” to uplift development and give it a separate voice in government, and second that the creation of DFID was very much about the circ...

To contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in Kenya, as in many other countries, had to temporarily close. This study investigates the extent to which lockdowns and school closures affected households and low-cost private schools (LCPS) in four urban informal settlements in Nairobi. Qua...

Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times is Mark Lowcock's behind-the-scenes account of his experience as the world's most senior humanitarian official—the UN Relief Chief. In his four years on the job, Lowcock coordinated the work of UN agencies, the Red Cross, and countless nationa...

IDA, the World Bank’s concessional fund, was set up 1960 to provide affordable finance to countries with the smallest economies, lowest per capita incomes and lowest creditworthiness. The goal was to help those countries to grow faster and more equally and thereby sustainably to reduce poverty. IDA ...

While global development is about much more than aid, US foreign assistance is, and will remain, one of the most visible tools for US development policy in many countries. The US government spends less than 1 percent of its annual budget — about $23 billion — on nonmilitary foreign assistance across...

Results-based aid (RBA) is a form of foreign assistance in which one government disburses funds to another for achieving an outcome. This paper distinguishes four different theories used to justify RBA programs and analyzes four case studies – from GAVI, the Amazon Fund, Ethiopian Secondary Ed...