Center for Global Development - Latest Items

Global Development July Meetup

2008-07-03T12:15:00-04:00

On Thursday, July 17th, we'll be joined by filmmaker Kobina Aidoo who will screen his new film, The Neo African Americans, a one hour documentary that explores how the rapid immigration from Africa and the Carribean is transforming the African American narrative. [A preview of the film can be seen here: Preview - The Neo African Americans ] About the filmmaker: At the same he was attending the University of Ghana, Kobina Aidoo was a televison producer/director/editor, playing a key role in launching Metro TV, Ghana's private television station pioneer. He then came to Barry University in Miami, Florida, where he majored in Communications. Upon graduation, he worked as a new media producer for Warner Bros. Publications and then worked for a nonprofit initiative of Intel Corp. and the MIT Media Lab, helping underserved youth become technologically fluent. In 2005, he quit his MBA studies and went to Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he also served as Co-Chief Editor of the Africa Policy Journal. He graduated in 2007 as a Master in Public Policy and has spent majority of the last year writing, traveling and working on this documentary. Join us at 6:30pm for conversation and snacks -- and we'll begin the screening around 6:45pm. After the film, we'll have a discussion and Q&A with the filmmaker.

Turning the Beat Around on Foreign Assistance Reform: Two Events Shift Debate From Why to How

2008-07-03T10:28:12-04:00

Two former administrators of the U.S. Agency for International Development -- Peter McPherson and Brian Atwood -- said the U.S. government should give greater prominence to development and rewrite the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 in their testimony before the...

President Sarkozy's Compassion for the Poor and Hungry

2008-07-02T16:13:39-04:00

A report in the Financial Times by John Thornhill leads with a remarkable quote from French President Nicolas Sarkozy warning the EU that he would block a proposed World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on agriculture that would reduce European production...

India Sees (Some Of) the Light on Solar Thermal Potential

2008-07-02T14:20:28-04:00

On Monday, one week in advance of the climate-themed G8 Summit in Japan, the Indian government released its first ever national climate change action plan. In line with previous statements by India and other developing countries, no specific emission targets...

Jenny Aker

2008-07-02T13:45:00-04:00

Jenny begins her position as the Center’s fifth post-doctoral fellow. She received her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at UC Berkeley. Her research agenda assesses the impact of agro-food market performance on producer and consumer welfare in sub-Saharan Africa with specific focus on the impact of information (technology) on grain prices dispersion, market actors’ behavior and welfare in Niger. Jenny has a Master’s degree in Development Economics and Pubic International Law from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), and worked as a researcher on a Fulbright grant at the University of Hassan-II in Morocco. In 2009, Jenny will join the faculty of Tufts University as an Assistant Professor of Development Economics.

On Zimbabwe: How Do the Worst Leaders Affect Development?

2008-07-01T10:40:16-04:00

One of the great underexplored areas in economic development research is rigorous investigation of how bad leaders affect development. A series of actions by Robert Mugabe's regime have coincided with an epic collapse of Zimbabwe's economy, erasing half a century...

Lord Stern Calls for New Conditionality -- On Climate and from Developing Countries this Time!

2008-06-30T18:30:22-04:00

Lord Nicholas Stern of Stern review fame delivered CGD's Richard H. Sabot Lecture last week. It was superb, as Joel Meister reports. Nick managed the trick of combining technical clarity on the economic issues -- economists can turn to his...

Lord Nicholas Stern Calls for Action on Climate and Development in Third Annual Sabot Lecture

2008-06-30T18:19:04-04:00

Last week the Center for Global Development hosted the third annual Richard H. Sabot Lecture to honor the memory of Dick Sabot, a development practitioner and scholar, and a founding member of CGD's board of directors (transcript available on Tuesday...

Lord Stern Calls for New Conditionality—On Climate and from Developing Countries this Time!

2008-06-30T18:00:00-04:00

Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, sketched the outlines of a grand bargain between rich and poor countries on climate change in the third annual Richard H. Sabot Lecture last week. CGD president Nancy Birdsall comments on the highlights of the lecture, noting a surprising consensus: when it comes to climate change, developing countries find themselves in the unaccustomed role of dictating conditionality to the rich world.

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Arvind vs. Arvind on India's Growth Surge

2008-06-30T15:26:24-04:00

The Economist recently published a lively review of India's Turn: Understanding the Economic Transformation, by Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute. The clever headline of the review, Arvind vs. Arvind, refers to the slightly different...

Macroeconomic Mess 101 (Business Standard)

2008-06-27T14:00:00-04:00

The Indian policy response to inflation has been somewhere between poor and awful.

Yes, India has a global inflation problem because world demand, especially for commodities, is running ahead of world capacity. The phenomenon is global but policy responses will be national.

So, which countries are going to act decisively to curtail demand? Of the three economically significant global players—the United States, the European Union, and China—it is only the European Union that has kept demand in check through relatively tight monetary policy. The United States and China have not. The United States, in order to preserve its financial system and avoid a slowdown, has followed expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, aggravating global price pressures, and while China has tightened, it has been small in magnitude and done with reluctance because any serious slowdown to the Chinese growth juggernaut is anathema to the Party.

A Plan B for Deepening Economic Ties in the Americas (Washington Post Online)

2008-06-27T10:45:00-04:00

The online edition of the Washington Post features CGD visiting fellow Nancy Lee's proposal for regional integration in Latin America.

Let them Eat: Tokyo Favors Subsidized Rice for Cattle Over World's Poor?

2008-06-25T17:23:30-04:00

A few weeks ago, our CGD Note, Unwanted Rice in Japan Can Solve the Rice Crisis -- If Washington and Tokyo Act, created quite a stir. Policy makers and the public could not believe that Japan was feeding rice to...

Feeding the World: The U.S. Role in Solving the Global Food Crisis

2008-06-24T15:15:00-04:00

What caused the current world food crisis? More importantly, what can be done about it— both now and in the future? Three leading experts will discuss factors that have contributed to the global food crisis and how policymakers, not only in the U.S. but worldwide, can address the key issues.

Congress Demands World Bank Reform as Condition for Clean Tech Fund Authorization

2008-06-23T17:08:59-04:00

The House Financial Services Committee will consider new legislation this week that would contribute $400 million in FY2009 to a multilateral Clean Technology Fund (CTF), administered by the World Bank, to promote low-carbon energy production in developing countries. Scheduled for...

Adding Value with AGRA

2008-06-23T16:15:33-04:00

The MCC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). This MoU -- the fourth signed this year by the MCC -- should be applauded as the type of smart partnership...

Congress Demands World Bank Reform as Condition for Clean Tech Fund Authorization

2008-06-23T16:15:00-04:00

Congress will consider new legislation this week that would contribute $400 million to a multilateral Clean Technology Fund (CTF) administered by the World Bank to promote low-carbon energy production in developing countries. But before any money changes hands, lawmakers are demanding key reforms to World Bank investment policies that mirror recommendations CGD senior fellow David Wheeler set out in congressional testimony earlier this month. CGD outreach and policy associate Joel Meister reports that the new bill requires CTF investments to show a preference for zero-carbon energy alternatives like solar thermal power and directs the multilateral development banks to adopt carbon accounting. Meister commends the provisions and says if the House Financial Services committee maintains them during markup of the bill this week it could mean big changes for the World Bank's role in addressing the climate crisis.

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The Final Cut: Smart Advocacy Reduces MCC Rescission to $58 million

2008-06-23T15:45:00-04:00

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the latest version of the FY08 supplemental bill last week, reducing the Senate-proposed rescission of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) from $525 million to $58 million. CGD senior policy analyst Sheila Herrling says the "cut to the cut" is due to smart advocacy from outside groups, including CGD, who put pressure on the administration to support its own flagship aid program and helped line up congressional champions. Herrling reports that the Senate is set to pass the bill this week and hopes the efforts to defend the MCA translate into greater support for long-term development programs like the MCA in the next administration.

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Japan Should Release Surplus Rice ahead of G8

2008-06-23T15:00:00-04:00

The global food crisis will be at the top of the agenda when leaders of the world's eight richest industrial nations meet in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan for their annual summit next month. Despite a recent drop in rice prices, at least in part due to CGD's push for Japan to release its surplus rice back onto the world markets, millions of people in Africa and elsewhere continue to face hunger and starvation because food prices remain too high. While the U.S. gave Japan the green light to export the rice in mid-May, Japan has yet to do so. CGD senior fellow Vijaya Ramachandran, visiting fellow Tom Slayton, and non-resident fellow Peter Timmer urge the Japanese government to take the lead at the G8 Summit by releasing its 1.5 million metric tons of unwanted rice to the World Food Programme or to international markets and by doing so, set an example for other governments to help swiftly mitigate the immediate impacts of the food crisis.

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The Final Cut: Smart Advocacy Reduces MCC Rescission to $58 Million

2008-06-23T14:18:19-04:00

The latest version of the FY08 supplemental bill passed by the House last week reduced the Senate-proposed rescission of the Millennium Challenge Account from $525 million to $58 million (see page 48). As we reported earlier, this "cut to the...

Japan Should Release Surplus Rice ahead of G8

2008-06-20T18:22:13-04:00

This posting is joint with Peter Timmer and Vijaya Ramachandran Over the past few weeks, rice consumers in Africa and other developing countries have watched anxiously as world prices have fallen steadily, at least in part due to our insistence...

Earth to America: The Price of Gasoline Isn't Too High, It's Too Low

2008-06-20T14:50:39-04:00

On Wednesday, President Bush joined presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in supporting the reversal of a long-standing ban on offshore oil drilling. Bush believes such action, along with exploitation of oil shale deposits and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife...

Entrenched, Embedded, and Here to Stay (Aljazeera Magazine)

2008-06-20T10:45:00-04:00

Aljazeera Magazine quotes CGD's research on Pentagon spending for development

Third Annual Richard H. Sabot Lecture

2008-06-19T14:30:00-04:00

The Center for Global Development is hosting its third annual Richard H. Sabot Lecture, in memory of Dick Sabot, a friend, co-author, and founding member of CGD's board of directors. We are honored to have Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and author of the Stern Review, deliver this year's lecture, entitled "The Economics of a Global Deal on Climate Change." CGD President Nancy Birdsall will host and serve as moderator for a discussion following the talk. A limited number of seats are currently available for this invitation-only event. Reservations will be accepted until we reach capacity. Date and time: Thursday, June 26, 2008; 5:00pm--6:30pm; followed by a reception Location: 1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, (Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics), Washington, DC. (Metro: Red Line, Dupont Circle)

Managing Dutch Disease in China and Russia

2008-06-19T13:30:00-04:00

This research seminar will focus on noted economist Al Harberger's theory of "sterilization by the people." Large, continuing inflows of foreign exchange in China from foreign direct investment and in Russia from oil sales have not been followed by higher rates of inflation and faster real exchange rate appreciation in those countries, as one would normally expect from the resulting growth in the domestic money supply. This discussion will identify a factor that is overlooked by most economists—that people in those countries have chosen to hold larger real cash balances of their own currency, in an effect termed "sterilization by the people." Sterilization by the people acts to counter the increase in the domestic money supply caused by large inflows of foreign exchange, thereby reducing both the inflationary pressure on the non-tradable sector of the economy and the real appreciation of the currency normally associated with Dutch disease.

How pro-poor is the international recruitment of seasonal agricultural labor from developing countries? Evidence from a new program in New Zealand

2008-06-18T16:45:00-04:00

New Zealand's new Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) program allows Pacific Islanders to seasonally migrate to New Zealand to work in horticulture and viticulture for up to seven months at a time. This sort of seasonal work policy is increasingly recommended by international aid agencies as a way for both developed and developing countries to benefit from migration, by allowing workers to send remittances home and gain new skills, without the source country losing the worker permanently and the receiving country facing long-term assimilation costs. Since evidence on the development impact of seasonal worker programs is scarce we are carrying out surveys in Tonga and Vanuatu of households with RSE migrants, households where people applied to the RSE but were not recruited, and households where no one applied to the RSE. These surveys were carried out prior to the first workers leaving for New Zealand and again while the worker was away. Our initial results analyze how pro-poor the recruitment process has been to date. We find that the RSE program does seem to have succeeded in creating new opportunities for relatively poor and unskilled Pacific Islanders to work in New Zealand.

Kofi Annan's Unusual Approach to the Crisis in Zimbabwe

2008-06-18T13:46:19-04:00

In today's Financial Times, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan makes a strong case for collective action on the situation in Zimbabwe. Mr Annan argues that "if the government, which many claim to be the author of violence, cannot ensure a...

Brazil's Emerging Economic Power: Now Investment-Grade and Why it Matters

2008-06-17T17:15:00-04:00

On April 30, 2008, Standard & Poor's became the first ratings agency to raise Brazil's foreign debt to investment-grade status. This unprecedented decision, coupled with the discovery of massive new oil and gas reserves, boosts Brazil's prospects for continued, long-term economic and political stability. Some analysts predict new foreign investment may reach $1 trillion over the next decade. Panelists will discuss the significance of the ratings upgrade and the implications of Brazil's regional and global emergence for U.S. interests in the Americas.

Measuring Progress with Tests of Learning: Pros and Cons for "Cash on Delivery Aid" in Education - Working Paper 147

2008-06-16T15:45:00-04:00

Improving education has been a central goal of international development for decades, and the best indicators of improvement measure student performance. But can such measurements be used as incentives to stimulate more rapid improvement in education? There are no simple answers to this question since test-based measures pose a myriad of technical challenges. In this CGD Working Paper, visiting fellow Marlaine Lockheed reviews some of these challenges and the effects they could have on measuring the success of "progress-based aid" programs. She suggests four ways to successfully incorporate measures of learning outcomes into programs for progress-based aid.

Operation Smart Power: The Non-Military Surge We Need

2008-06-16T13:42:07-04:00

The day after the launch of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network's New Day, New Way Proposal, Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN), Christopher Shays (R-CT), John Tierney (D-MA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced a bipartisan resolution to elevate global development and foreign...

Integration in the Americas: One Idea for Plan B (Essay)

2008-06-16T10:45:00-04:00

In this CGD Essay, visiting fellow Nancy Lee provides the full details and policy recommendations for a strategy of regional investment integration in the Americas. The essay, excerpted from her chapter in the forthcoming White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President, builds on a previously published CGD Note by specifying the scope of the proposed agreement, outlining its expected gains, and identifying the initial steps the United States could take to encourage a fresh agreement to be reached.

Rescinding Rescission

2008-06-16T09:22:04-04:00

As an update to our earlier blog on this issue, rumor has it the original $525 million rescission of FY08 funding to the MCC has been reduced in conference to around $60 million. We applaud the efforts by civil society...

Intellectual Property and Public Health: An Overview of the Debate with a Focus on U.S. Policy - Working Paper 146

2008-06-12T17:45:00-04:00

In the past fifteen years, the U.S. and other rich countries have strengthened patent protection for pharmaceutical products. In this paper, Carsten Fink describes the global shift in intellectual property policies and employs economic analysis to evaluate its consequences for developing countries. He then offers recommendations for policymakers in developing countries and in the United States who seek to better reconcile innovation incentives and access needs.

HIV/AIDS Funding and Health Systems: How do AIDS Donors Interact With National Health Systems?

2008-06-12T13:00:00-04:00

A heated debate has emerged in the global health community over whether or not disease-specific funding, particularly the large sums of donor money for HIV/AIDS, is positively affecting health systems in developing countries (my colleagues Ruth Levine, Mead Over, and...

CGD Development Update: New Day for U.S. Foreign Assistance | House Scrutiny of WB Clean Tech Fund | Body as Health System Metaphor

2008-06-10T13:45:00-04:00

New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century

2008-06-10T09:00:00-04:00

New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century calls on the next American president, Congress, policymakers and the American people to overhaul how the U.S. helps poor people in developing countries. Among the recommended steps: a new national foreign assistance strategy and a new Foreign Assistance Act to replace the outdated framework that President Kennedy signed nearly 50 years ago. CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet is a co-chair of the authoring group, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network.

House Committee Tells U.S. Treasury to Heed Calls for Redesign of Clean Tech Fund

2008-06-09T16:39:30-04:00

Controversy over the World Bank's proposed design for a multibillion dollar Clean Technology Fund (CTF) reached a House subcommittee last week. When the hearing ended, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), the chairman of the subcommittee, voiced support for CGD senior fellow...

Viewers Respond to "A Funny Video about Foreign Assistance?"

2008-06-09T15:31:21-04:00

Last week, CGD launched a new video to help convey why the next president needs to give U.S. foreign assistance policy something akin to an extreme makeover. "Bring U.S. Foreign Assistance into the 21st Century" has since been watched on...

CGD Development Update: A Funny YouTube Video about Foreign Assistance?

2008-06-03T13:45:00-04:00

Integration in the Americas: One Idea for Plan B (Note)

2008-06-03T13:30:00-04:00

Unlike East Asia and Europe, Latin America lacks a shared integration strategy and continues to struggle with a burdensome investment climate. In this new CGD Note, visiting fellow Nancy Lee suggests a fresh approach to regional integration in the form of a proposed regional investment agreement. The idea is a collective effort to set common standards for reducing specific barriers to domestic and foreign investment. Beyond its benefits for growth, such an agreement could boost the incomes of the poor by helping small businesses trapped in the informal sector move into the more productive formal sector.

We Need a Metaphor for Health Systems. What About the Human Body?

2008-06-02T12:37:49-04:00

Creating a shared metaphor is a powerful way to make an abstract concept tractable. Just think about how the metaphor of "war" dominates and shapes so much of what we do in public health: the war on cancer, the fight...

Shining a Light on What Works: Aravind Eye Care System Wins Gates Award

2008-05-30T15:51:40-04:00

Congratulations to the Aravind Eye Care System for winning the Gates 2008 Global Health Award, a $1 million prize that is the largest of its kind given for international health. Presented at the Global Health Council's 35th Annual International Conference...

CGD Development Update: Migration Data | What's Driving the Commodity Price Spike? | Calculating CARMA

2008-05-28T15:00:00-04:00

Don't Close the Golden Door: Our Noisy Debate on Immigration and Its Deathly Silence on Development

2008-05-27T18:00:00-04:00

International migration has long been a central tool in the battle against global poverty and inequality, but the recent heated political debate over immigration reform has largely failed to recognize how migration shapes the development process. In this essay, research fellow Michael Clemens and co-author Sami Bazzi outline five major reasons why migration is a development issue in today’s world, and they suggest an agenda for the next U.S. administration to make U.S. migration policy work for the United States, for countries of origin, and for the migrants themselves.

"AIDS Spending Harms Health Systems" -- Passionately Disputed but Hardly Refuted

2008-05-22T14:34:35-04:00

Roger England's article on "AIDS exceptionality" in the British Medical Journal argues that AIDS has received a larger share of total health spending than its contribution to the burden of disease would justify and that this large increase is having...

Administration Doesn't Object in SAP to MCA Cuts

2008-05-21T16:44:08-04:00

Yesterday I blogged about the hatchet taken to the MCA by Senator Gregg and others in the supplemental bill. I had hoped that the Administration would push back hard in its Statement of Administration Policy, but it did not. The...

Calculating CARMA: Global Estimation of CO2 Emissions from the Power Sector - Working Paper 145

2008-05-20T11:45:00-04:00

In November 2007 CGD’s Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) provided the first global database on CO2 emissions from the world’s 50,000 power plants and the firms that own them. CARMA was widely welcomed as a tool for public education and as an important first step toward reliable, consistent information on plant-level emissions that will be crucial for future international agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In this new working paper, CGD senior fellow David Wheeler and co-author Kevin Ummel describe CARMA’s methodology, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and test its accuracy across countries and at different geographical scales. They also invite power companies that have verified emissions data to submit them for inclusion in CARMA.

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CGD Development Update: Bush's Foreign Aid | Good News on Rice | PEPFAR: Mend It, Don't End It

2008-05-20T11:45:00-04:00

Sacrificing the MCA to be Good Just Isn't Smart

2008-05-20T11:31:18-04:00

Today, the full Senate will in all likelihood pass a supplemental appropriations bill that includes two amendments introduced by Senator Gregg (R-NH) that cut long-term international development funding from the Millennium Challenge Account to pay for additional emergency disaster assistance...

Good Drugs are Hard to Come By

2008-05-19T17:56:56-04:00

It's hard to know what to make of the news about bad malaria drugs in Africa reported in the new study from the team at Africa Fighting Malaria. The team went around to private pharmacies in six African countries and...

George Bush's Foreign Aid: Transformation or Chaos?

2008-05-16T10:30:00-04:00

In this new CGD book, visiting fellow Carol Lancaster analyzes the dramatic changes in U.S. foreign aid during the Bush administration, including the increased use of aid to address failed states and to fight the global war on terror, the establishment of an entirely new aid agency—the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the use of large amounts of aid to address a single problem, as with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Lancaster analyzes the origins of these shifts in aid, their promise and potential problems, and she concludes with recommendations to revise the purposes and organization of U.S. aid for the future.

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PEPFAR Should Be Strengthened, Not Blocked

2008-05-14T17:59:03-04:00

The "hold" that seven U.S. Senators have placed on PEPFAR reauthorization by Congress (see Michael Gerson's column Moral Scales in the Senate in today's Washington Post and Josh Busby's related blog) literally threatens the lives of over a million people...

MCC and ERRs: Turning a Triple on Transparency into a Home Run

2008-05-13T15:29:18-04:00

This is a joint blog posting by Sheila Herrling and Amy Crone. A quick shout-out to the MCC on the launch of its new economic rate of return web feature! It shows how the MCC and its partner countries use...

CGD Development Update: Rice for People, Not Pigs; Measuring Commitment to Africa; Development Policy RSS

2008-05-13T10:45:00-04:00

The Commitment to Development Index for Africa: How Much do the Richest Countries Help the Poorest Continent?

2008-05-12T13:00:00-04:00

How committed are the world's richest countries to the development of Africa, the world's poorest continent? Rich countries are usually compared on how much foreign aid they give as a percentage of their GDP, but helping Africa involves much more than aid. CGD's Commitment to Development Index has long compared 21 rich countries on aid, trade, migration, and other policies that affect the entire developing world. In the new CDI for Africa, research fellow David Roodman trains the CDI methodology on rich countries' links to this one continent. While the results may not be what you expect, one message is clear: all rich countries could do much more to foster development in Africa.

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Prevention Failure Redux: Unexpected Tradeoffs in HIV Testing, Prevention and Treatment

2008-05-12T11:28:13-04:00

Last Monday, CGD posted my working paper entitled, "Prevention Failure: The Ballooning Entitlement Burden of U.S. Global AIDS Treatment Spending and What to Do About It." In response, I've received a number of e-mail comments on various aspects of the...

Unwanted Rice in Japan Can Solve the Rice Crisis--If Washington and Tokyo Act

2008-05-09T17:15:00-04:00

The loss of rice production in Myanmar is worsening the crisis in world rice markets, where prices have trebled this year. Meanwhile, Japan has 1.5 million tons of surplus rice, most of it imported from the U.S. Releasing this rice to global markets would prick a speculative bubble and bring rice prices down fast, while also encouraging China and Thailand to release their surplus stocks. But first Washington must lift its objections and Japan must decide to re-export rice that it imported from the U.S., Thailand, and Vietnam. Failure to act would mean that high-quality U.S. rice would be fed to Japanese pigs and chickens while millions of poor people suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Tom Slayton, a former editor of The Rice Trader, and Peter Timmer, CGD non-resident fellow and visiting professor at Stanford University, explain how prompt action could prevent the rice price crisis from becoming a hunger crisis.

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CGD Development Update: Ballooning AIDS costs; Is Food Aid The Answer?; Join CGD on Facebook!

2008-05-06T10:45:00-04:00

Prevention Failure: The Ballooning Entitlement Burden of U.S. Global AIDS Treatment Spending and What to Do About It - Working Paper 144

2008-05-05T14:30:00-04:00

U.S. global AIDS spending is helping to prolong the lives of more than a million people, yet this success contains the seeds of a future crisis. Escalating treatment costs coupled with neglected prevention measures mean that AIDS spending is growing so rapidly that it threatens to squeeze out U.S. spending on other global health needs, even to the point of consuming half of the entire U.S. foreign assistance budget by 2016. Mead Over argues that AIDS treatment spending could quickly become a global entitlement since withdrawing funding for life-saving drugs would mean death for the beneficiaries. He offers suggestions for avoiding a ballooning AIDS treatment entitlement, including greatly stepped-up prevention efforts.

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"Pay for Prevention" and Other Innovative Ways to Reduce the Spread of Disease

2008-04-30T12:22:33-04:00

The front page of the weekend edition of the Financial Times reports a Tanzanian research proposal with the breathless fanfare usually reserved for a medical or scientific breakthrough. In fact, the FT is not announcing a new research finding, but...

CGD Development Update: U.S. Aid Reform Testimony; Food and Free Trade; RSS Feeds

2008-04-29T14:00:00-04:00

AEI Takes on Demand Forecasting for Malaria

2008-04-24T11:39:25-04:00

In honor of World Malaria Day tomorrow, AEI research fellow Roger Bate has issued a new policy brief and related magazine feature decrying the state of global demand forecasting for artemisinin-based cominbation therapies (ACTs):WHO estimates often rely on 'need,' a...

Global Health Geometry

2008-04-23T11:20:00-04:00

The ongoing debate about "vertical" versus "horizontal" approaches to health swings like a pendulum. My colleague Ruth Levine has previously pointed out the rhetorical tendency towards polarizing this debate in favor of practical solutions for resource allocation to health systems;...

"Diagonal" Health Care: Clever Cartoons Hide the Benefits of Complementarity and the Costs of Unbalanced Provider Incentives

2008-04-22T12:30:30-04:00

A paper by Gorik Ooms of Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium and co-authors introduces a new metaphor to the discussion of policy towards developing country health systems: "diagonalization." This word adds a useful image to the still unresolved and increasingly sterile...

CGD Development Update: Asia's Looming Rice Crisis; How US AIDS Money Gets Spent; Country Risk Insurance

2008-04-22T10:30:00-04:00

A New Lens on a Familiar Question: Did Organized Family Planning Efforts Do More Harm Than Good?

2008-04-21T16:32:44-04:00

*This blog was co-authored by Barbara Seligman, consultant to CGD In his recently released book, Fatal Misconceptions: The Struggle to Control World Population, Matthew Connelly, an associate professor of history at Columbia, tells a cautionary tale about the arrogance that...

What Happened to Women and Children First?

2008-04-18T16:11:33-04:00

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is hosting an event in Washington DC: The "Stories of Mothers Lost" includes an exhibit that displays a series of artistic fabric panels representing women in 19 countries around the world. The panels...

New PEPFAR Data: The Numbers Behind the Stories

2008-04-17T17:00:00-04:00

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the single largest funder of global AIDS relief programs, but it does not regularly release data on how its money is spent. In this report, CGD's HIV/AIDS Monitor Team analyzes a newly available dataset of PEPFAR funding. They find, among other things, that only 30% of funds in 15 focus countries have gone to local organizations. They urge PEPFAR to regularly publish such funding data to improve transparency and strengthen coordination with host country governments and other stakeholders, and they suggest actions PEPFAR should take to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of its programs.

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CGD Development Update: Biofuel Subsidies; Jobs in Iraq; Colombia Trade Pact

2008-04-15T10:30:00-04:00

The Global Disease Derby

2008-04-11T18:07:30-04:00

"Malaria is a winning horse" - the one on which you should be hedging all your bets for a great quick win in the world of global disease racing. AIDS - it takes too long and there is no cure...

New Online Health Systems Database

2008-04-11T08:56:57-04:00

Abt Associates' Health Systems 20/20 project has just launched a great new resource:The Health Systems Database is an easy-to-use web-based tool that compiles and analyzes country data, allowing users to quickly assess the performance of a country's health system. The...

CGD Development Update: Zoellick's New World Bank; Double-Majority Voting at the IMF; Liberia on the Move

2008-04-08T09:30:00-04:00

Missing the One-Armed Man

2008-04-02T12:30:16-04:00

Yes, it's true, I'd like to be able to vacation in Vegas. But that doesn't seem like a good blog entry for CGD, so I thought I'd write about something else instead. Though if anyone's looking for a blackjack buddy...

CGD Development Update: Power and Roads for Africa; McCain on Development; Malaria Eradication

2008-04-01T09:30:00-04:00

Power and Roads for Africa

2008-03-31T13:30:00-04:00

CGD senior fellow Vijaya Ramachandran argues in this essay that the next U.S. president can play a valuable role in helping Africa to overcome two crucial barriers to poverty reduction: lack of power and lack of roads. Ramachandran urges the next president to create a $1 billion Clean Energy Fund for Africa to facilitate the transfer of U.S. infrastructure technology, including renewable energy; and to encourage the World Bank and the African Development Bank to focus on cross-country regional infrastructure projects, also with a strong emphasis on clean technology. The essay is included in a forthcoming CGD volume: The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President.

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Here's your chance to become a fellow in Liberia!

2008-03-27T19:39:38-04:00

We have begun recruiting for the next round of Liberia fellows who will head out to Monrovia this summer! Are you a young professional with a Masters degree (e.g., an MBA, MPP, MPH, or a law degree) and one year...