This report debates the case for specific public investments in education in low- and lower-middle-income countries, drawing on evidence of what has worked not just in small-scale experiments but...

If we could reinvent MDBs to respond to urgent development and climate needs and to benefit from 70 years of experience with the model, what would they look like? Countries should chart their own...

On Tuesday, the World Bank announced the launch of a new database to characterize the quality and composition of the public sector in 115 countries. At this point, you might be thinking: “Who decided...

A focus on the direct benefits of climate finance investments ignores the indirect impact that climate finance may have had on making net zero targets more ambitious than they would otherwise have...

The vast majority of out-of-school children around the world live in rural areas. For children who live in rural areas and who are enrolled in school, they are less likely to finish primary school or...

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer just won the Nobel Prize in economics. Pamela Jakiela explains why that's a big deal.

The policy discussions about PPR are noteworthy. But the global public sector is underinvesting in pandemic response. This creates the illusion of safety without the finance or planning in place to...

Contact: Sean Bartlett Center for Global Development +1 (202) 416-4040 [email protected] Employment Tribunal Sided with CGD in 2019

The unilateral ultimatum issued by President Donald Trump to the World Health Organization—"reform or else” in 30 days—raises the real possibility of a WHO without funds or governance participation...

Confined to their homes, Americans are kneading dough.

Following the playbook of Argentina and Greece, Tanzania has criminalized scrutiny of its economic and social data—creating a quandary for its international creditors.

Here’s an easy five-point plan for the leadership of a country which has emerged from civil war and dire poverty over recent decades and now wants to destroy itself.

On World Refugee Day this year, we are excited to note recent successes—in particular, the expansion of formal labor market access (FLMA) for refugees.

On World Refugee Day this year, we are excited to note recent successes—in particular, the expansion of formal labor market access (FLMA) for refugees.

Children around the world are exposed to unconscionable levels of violence. In some regions, two thirds of children suffer physical violence and one third of girls suffer sexual abuse. Violence has...

Low-income countries are in a battle for their lives and livelihoods, but they lack the resources to respond effectively. As the largest single source of development finance for the world’s poorest...

The choice is so clear as not to be a choice at all. The Biden administration should give Okonjo-Iweala the nod as soon as possible.

The Commitment to Development Index ranks 40 of the world's most powerful countries on their dedication to policies that affect more than 5 billion people living in poorer nations. Sweden leads this...

The White House is blaming the organization now. Don’t fall for it.

We are thrilled to announce that Mark Lowcock will join CGD as distinguished non-resident fellow, effective tomorrow, June 20, 2021. He will contribute his wide-ranging expertise and wisdom to many...

Never before has the health of the population been so front-of-mind for so many people. African countries continue to face multiple burdens with limited resources, and COVID-19 has brought a new...

As the debate on family separation and US immigration policy continues, Michael Clemens and Kate Gough pose a key question: why are so many children and families migrating?

NOTE FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE AFRICA CENTRES FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION The Africa CDC’s Health Economics Programme (HEP) has been established to support Member States – and our...

The IHEA congress is the only global forum for health economists to engage around the latest methodological developments, present recent research findings, and explore the implications of this...

This is the third of our biennial updates on global education aid finance. In these posts we examine aid data from the OECD, analysing how much aid is going to education, where it is allocated, by...

Can we end poverty, provide food for all and otherwise make Earth a better place by 2030? By all accounts, the answer is no. So then what's the point of the Sustainable Development Goals?

The Commitment to Development Index ranks 40 of the world's most powerful countries on their dedication to policies that affect more than 5 billion people living in poorer nations. Sweden leads this...

This essay lays out the story of how the UNDP team with its development partners achieved universal ID registration in Malawi, the challenges we faced, the roadblocks, how UNDP coordinated with other...

President Obama’s trip to Kenya earlier this year elicited charges from within the country that the United States was seeking to impose LGBT rights on unwilling Kenyans. This sentiment has found...

Twenty-five years ago, travel writer and journalist Robert Kaplan wrote an article for The Atlantic, headlined “The Coming Anarchy.” It was an apocalyptic account of Kaplan’s visit to West Africa and...

While all corners of the world have been touched by COVID-19, countries’ experiences with the virus have certainly not been universal. Staggering divergences in outcomes between countries—in terms of...

Nick Lea's fundamental critique seems to be that economists are too bound to questions that can be answered with a significant amount of data, using the data to test hypotheses. 

On behalf of the staff of the Center for Global Development (CGD), President Masood Ahmed released the following statement Thursday:  "As a Washington, DC-based think tank, focused internationally to...

This essay lays out the story of how the UNDP team with its development partners achieved universal ID registration in Malawi, the challenges we faced, the roadblocks, how UNDP coordinated with other...

Can governments contract out school management at scale? In 2016 the Government of Punjab transferred management of over 4,000 failing primary schools to private operators. Schools remained free to...

In the biggest step forward in US development policy since the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and PEPFAR, Congress approved legislation to establish a new, modernized US development...

In this blog post, we discuss the implications for carbon emissions and climate debt if the G20 countries implemented the most recent pledges in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)....

This first episode of the new Africa-centered podcast series Lagos to Mombasa examines how African governments can shape their responses to the pandemic and prepare for the future. Patrick Tippoo of...

Ajay Banga has begun his mandate as the newly elected President of the World Bank. Several blogs and papers have been written offering advice on what his priorities should be. Most suggestions assume...

The World Bank has just released country-by-country data on the debt owed to individual creditors by the 73 countries eligible to participate in the G20-sponsored debt service suspension initiative.

Gender languages assign many—sometimes all—nouns to distinct sex-based categories, masculine and feminine. We construct a new data set, documenting this property for more than four thousand languages...

There are two good reasons to harness the market power of iconic brands. First, policymakers and researchers with evidence-based arguments on migration are struggling to combat the hateful rhetoric...

Two studies published in the last year show that more readable economics papers get cited more.

Contact: [email protected] London – Today, The Center for Global Development (CGD) released the following statement, in relation to the Employment Tribunal judgment in the case brought by Maya...

Achieving SDG 5 and other gender-related SDG targets will require robust data systems that can only be established through smarter and sustainable investments in data collection, analysis, and use....

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer just won the Nobel Prize in economics. Pamela Jakiela explains why that's a big deal.

Older siblings—particularly sisters—play a much larger role in caring for young children in many low- and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts, particularly in rural areas and among households...

In many low- and middle-income countries, lifesaving health products are either unavailable or beyond the reach of the people who need them most.

There are two good reasons to harness the market power of iconic brands. First, policymakers and researchers with evidence-based arguments on migration are struggling to combat the hateful rhetoric...

Founded in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) is one of the world’s largest multilateral health funders, disbursing $3–$4 billion a year across 100-plus...

The arrival of more than a million refugees and migrants in Europe has brought widespread concern they will become an economic drain on the countries that welcome them. When economists have studied...

Pamela Gongora-Salazar, a former ministry of health official in Colombia, shares her account of how health taxes happen (or don’t) in the real world. 

“As has now been shown in sharp relief, the WHO lacks the necessary funding and full capabilities needed to effectively control the global spread of infectious diseases. Failures and weaknesses...

Preventing deaths through health interventions is only one part of what the aid budget does—but our review finds that £750m can plausibly prevent 180,000 deaths per year.

On September 26, Germans will be called to the polls to elect a new parliament. Its members will in turn choose a successor for Angela Merkel, whose chancellorship ends after 16 years in power. The...

As economic indicators deteriorate, the Tanzanian government has jailed an opposition leader for questioning the Bank of Tanzania's growth statistics. It's time for the World Bank and the IMF to...

As the UN General Assembly meets in New York and as we get ready to head into the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in a few weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief recap on...