A CGD blog. For all that investment is far from all we need, we will still need a massive amount of it if we are to meet global targets on sustainable development. Low and zero-carbon power plants expanded electricity, water and sanitation networks universal health and education systems-none come cheap. Estim…

A CGD blog with Erin Collinson. DFC has been the subject of a growing list of proposals from lawmakers that envision the agency tackling a wider range of challenges than initially envisioned. The agency may find ways to leverage this heightened interest. However, delivering on the bipartisan, foundational vision for DFC amid evolv…

A CGD blog. The MCC is particular about which countries it supports. Among the requirements, Ukraine passes the agency’s (important and legitimate) hurdle that it only works in the world’s low- and lower-middle-income countries. It also passes a lot of other tests the MCC lays out for support, based on a scorec…

A CGD blog with Samuel Huckstep. In this piece, we explore how training combined with mobility could play a big role in creating the required skills needed- and we offer recommendations to policymakers to pursue this two-pronged plan.

A CGD blog. It’s Davos week, so I just checked… and I qualify for writing a global “we are the 99 percent” blog! Indeed, my household is actually all the way toward the bottom end of the 99th income percentile worldwide (the lower cutoff is around $200,000 for a family of four). So, what do…

A CGD blog with Euan Ritchie. In the international development community, “country ownership” is considered a good thing, while criticisims of foreign aid are based on the idea that this is the problem. But only about a third of assistance is actually managed by those it is intended to help.

A CGD blog. The idea that shavings of public gold sprinkled like fairy dust on private investment projects would bring to life a giant array of infrastructure and services which in turn would gift us wondrous progress in development hasn’t worked out. It is time to drop the fantasy and focus instead on the test…

A CGD blog. On March 14-15th, the US National Academies hosted a discussion on Africa-US science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) university partnerships, as part of an effort to design a new partnership mechanism. The program opened with representatives from African institutions talking about their ex…

A CGD blog. Chinese construction firms have captured a lot of the market in many developing countries and perhaps especially in African countries. By one estimate, they accounted for 31 percent of all construction projects in Africa with a value of $50m or more in 2020.

A CGD blog with Amanda Glassman. The reaction to COVID-19 has been record-breaking. Today we release a paper that reports on the development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in historical perspective, and it suggests a pattern of unparalleled, but still deeply inequitable, progress.