Ideas to Action:
Independent research for global prosperity
Decisions about which type of patients receive what interventions, when, and at what cost often result from ad hoc, nontransparent processes driven more by inertia and interest groups than by science, ethics, and the public interest. Reallocating a portion of public and donor monies toward the most cost-effective health interventions would save more lives and promote health equity.
Economic growth and improved living standards require access to reliable, affordable, convenient, and safe cooking fuels and electricity. Today, 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity and roughly 2.7 billion are without access to clean, safe cooking fuel.[1] Securing energy, therefore, is a development imperative. But successfully confronting climate change is too: Global warming is already disproportionately affecting the poor and is threatening to reverse hard-won development gains. Fortunately, the two goals of ending energy poverty and protecting the climate are compatible.
This brief summarizes and updates results of the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) index applied to health aid and compares these results to the overall QuODA assessment. Through quantifying performance on aid effectiveness, we hope to motivate improvements in health aid effectiveness and contribute to the definition of better, more empirically based measures of health aid quality.
The authors assess the World Bank’s private sector interventions in African fragile states. They summarize and analyze project-level data from IDA, IFC, and MIGA, and introduce a new framework which may assist in the design and implementation of projects in fragile states.
After a decade of rapid economic growth, many developing countries have attained middle-income status, but poverty reduction in these countries has not kept pace with economic growth. Most of the world’s poor—up to a billion people—now live in these new middle-income countries. These countries also carry the majority of the global disease burden.
David Roodman he offers practical recommendations to those involved in providing microfinance services, including donors, social investors, and microfinance leaders.
This brief provides a summary of the forthcoming second edition of the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) Assessment sponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Global Development.
This brief summarizes the recommendations in Achieving an AIDS Transition to use focused policies and well-designed incentives to finally bring the AIDS epidemic under control.
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect poor people in developing countries.
This brief outlines the recommendations from the report of the Center for Global Development’s Working Group on Clinical Trials and Regulatory Pathways
The United States should take modest steps to create a legal channel for limited numbers of people fleeing natural disasters overseas to enter the United States. This would address two related problems: the lack of any systematic U.S. policy to help the growing numbers of people displaced across borders by natural disasters and the inability of U.S. humanitarian relief efforts to reduce systemic poverty or sustainably improve victims’ livelihoods. The aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake presents a compelling case study of the administrative and legislative ways the U.S. government could address both problems. Migration is already a proven and powerful force for reducing Haitians’ poverty. A few modest changes in the U.S. approach could greatly aid Haiti’s recovery.
This brief on leadership selection at the international financial institutions is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the IFIs.
This brief on the IMF is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the international financial institutions.
This brief on the International Finance Corporation is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the international financial institutions.
This brief on the General Capital Increase is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the international financial institutions.
This brief on the World Bank is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the international financial institutions.
This brief on the Regional Development Banks is one of a suite of policy briefs that provides basic background information and practical analysis of the financial and governance issues facing the international financial institutions.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and mental illnesses are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The good news is that much of the NCD burden can be prevented through interventions that are affordable in most countries. The United States can help now by taking five low-cost or no-cost steps.
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