Charles Kenny

Books, Papers and Articles

Charles Kenny writes about global development — what’s working, what isn’t, and how the world can do better. An economist who spent fifteen years at the World Bank, he is now a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.

About Charles

  • Cover of "Getting Better" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "The Upside of Down" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "Results Not Receipts" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "Close the Pentagon" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "The Plague Cycle" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "Your World, Better" by Charles Kenny
    Cover of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility" by Anthony Kenny and Charles Kenny

  • We Don’t Know the Impact of Humanitarian Aid Cuts. We Should Fix That.

    A blog for CGD. Its quite possible the US aid cuts are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths or more in humanitarian settings. The data is weak enough that we just don’t know. We should fix that problem.

  • From Great Lakes Parasites to Martian Microbes: Where US Multilateral Funding Survived, and Didn’t, in FY25

    A CGD blog with Erin Collinson. A lot of good international organizations, large and small, saw their US funding slashed in 2025.

  • Protecting the Client in US Global Health Agreements

    A CGD note. The US has played the lead role in a global humanitarian effort responding to that demand, especially with regard to HIV, malaria, and nutrition, alongside maternal and child health. Reforms to US foreign assistance can both honor the compassionate imperative while also improving efficiency, country leadership, and a transition to country financing. But to do so, those reforms must account for the differing capacities of the countries that are part of the process, and design responses appropriately. The rollout of the new Global Health Strategy should be adjusted accordingly.

  • Impact Data Helped Saved PEPFAR. What About Everything Else?

    A blog for CGD. Data on outcomes like mortality is not only useful for targeting, monitoring and evaluation, it is really important for advocacy.

  • Will There Be an African Energy Revolution? That Depends on Who Funds What

    New CGD paper (and blog). The reach of electricity in Africa is rapidly extending, not least thanks to an explosion in imports of solar panels. This is good news for the quality of life of people in the region and is the primary route to sustainably extend electricity access, but it imposes some challenges on the utility sector. Most of the panels are being used domestically and at small scale. This worsens what were already considerable financial challenges for utility scale private provision. And it suggests a vital role for publicly funded electricity infrastructure to ensure high-quality, financially sustainable power provision, especially to industry.

  • Don’t Change ODA Graduation Rules To Score Assistance to Rich Small States

    A CGD blog with Euan Ritchie. The OECD DAC is threatening to change the rules around graduation supposedly because it is worried about aid dependent countries that will graduate soon. List of countries worldwide with ODA>10% of GNI that are anywhere near the graduation threshold: (i) Nauru (ii) Palau.

  • The Development Assistance Committee Sinks to the Occasion?

    A blog for CGD. Last time ODA fell by 25%, the DAC responded with a set of ambitious development goals to motivate and target aid where it could do the most good (they ended up as the MDGs). This time, its trying to loosen the definition of ODA so it can be used in countries where it will be less effective. Carsten Staur, Chair of the DAC, was kind enough to respond.

  • U.S. Foreign Assistance: Not What It Was

    For In Development with Erin Collinson. The U.S. is now operating an aid program without an aid agency. It isn’t going so well.

  • Use New Philanthropy for a Maximum Vaccination Strategy

    A blog for CGD. Hopefully there’s about to be a lot more effective-altruist-adjacent philanthropic money around. My pitch on spending it: vaccinate everyone against everything all the time.

  • Beyond Belt and Road: Responding to the Evolution of China’s Financing for Infrastructure

    A note for CGD. The early period of China’s Belt and Road initiative involved significant sovereign lending, much of it directed to poorer developing countries, with considerable support for major infrastructure projects. A number of those projects generated healthy economic returns, but the lending was comparatively expensive and non-transparent, and so increasingly financially unsustainable. The Belt and Road model evolved partially as a result, with new sovereign lending focused more on restructuring, while new investment projects are increasingly ‘private’ and frequently linked with extraction. Again, many of these deals may be economically valuable, but they remain both opaque and may generate contingent liabilities. Traditional donors might respond to the changed direction of BRI by (i) better filling the public sector gap: offering the finance China was offering for public infrastructure projects, but doing so transparently and ensuring financial sustainability; (ii) providing private finance through development finance institutions using competitive and transparent approaches that contrast with current practice in both Chinese and traditional donor financing; and (iii) providing support to developing country governments and state-owned enterprises regarding infrastructure planning, competitive selection of private sector partners, and negotiation support. I wrote a short version for Oxford Geopolitica.