A CGD blog. Providing reliable electricity is complex and expensive: large power plants can be billion-dollar investments. As a result, a growing number of cash-strapped developing countries are signing power purchase agreements with electricity providers to shift investment costs to the private sector.

A CGD blog. Imagine the young George Washington said, “I cannot tell a lie. I did not cut down the cherry tree,” then added sotto voce, “’twas the hatchet that did it.” Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development finance institutions are dissembling in the other direction when it comes to their impact…

A CGD blog with Euan Ritchie. Euan Ritchie and Charles Kenny take a closer look at the Newton Fund and ask if it is focused on the right places.

A CGD blog with Euan Ritchie. Directing innovation to overcome barriers to development in the world’s poorest countries is surely a good use of aid, then. But who should decide the barriers to overcome, and how should the research and development be supported?

A CGD blog. Second in the series on the UK’s Integrated Review, Charles Kenny looks at the UK’s international relations policy

A CGD blog. How should member countries of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee classify their support to private sector investments in developing countries though development finance institutions? Either way, donors have decided that DFIs are in the aid business. And that means that DFIs shoul…

A CGD blog with Asif Saleh. Non-medical masks are a comparatively affordable intervention that could be rolled out at scale in developing countries, were WHO guidance to change. At the moment, apparel firms in developing countries have considerable spare capacity because of cancelled orders. Taking all of this into accoun…

A CGD blog. The World Bank Group has some very clear (and very good) guidelines about what makes for a successful public-private partnership where governments contract service provision like energy supply or education from private firms. Sadly, the bank has been ignoring that rule recently. And that is a sign o…

A CGD blog. When development finance institutions (DFIs) use subsidies to support private firms in developing countries, they fundamentally change the nature of their business. To ensure the maximum development impact of scarce aid resources, subsidies should be competitive wherever possible, capped if not comp…

A CGD blog. The Private Sector Window (PSW) takes resources from the World Bank’s soft lending arm, the International Development Association (IDA), and uses it to support private sector investments in poorer developing countries.This is a comparatively straightforward way for the IFC to move money, but it is h…