A CGD blog. I’m not convinced that the IFC will manage to deliver on all of the promises it is making in order to receive the funds. And I think that congressional concerns with the IFC’s use of aid in an attempt to meet lending targets are right. So, reform should come alongside resources.

A CGD blog with Justin Sandefur. A broad array of international actors agrees that many developing countries desperately need to collect more tax revenue. But one part of the World Bank is pushing in the other direction.

A CGD blog. In global development, we spend a lot of time thinking about cost effectiveness. But what if we step back and look at the broader picture when it comes to the effectiveness of different tools of foreign policy and engagement including diplomacy and defense? What are our most effective approaches to …

A CGD blog with Sam Besse. Less than 45 percent of the area of Tanzania is covered by any form of cell phone reception. Telecom providers target high-population areas first, so the percentage of the population covered by the cell phone signal is 83 percent. But the problem is that the remaining 17 percent of…

A CGD blog with Megan O’Donnell. We’re a third of the way through the lifetime of the Sustainable Development Goals, which were set to transform the world by 2030. But when it comes to SDG 5 on gender equality, global progress towards targets remains either unmeasured or too slow.

A CGD blog with Megan O’Donnell. At their best, experts sitting in think tanks generate rigorous research and analysis inform policies and address the world’s most pressing challenges. But who gets to be counted among these experts? Are think tanks hiring, promoting, and compensating equitably and inclusively? And who is bein…

A CGD blog with David Evans. It’s rare that good ideas in economics get such strong bipartisan political support in Washington. Hopefully that’s a sign of a secure future for DIV.

A CGD blog. The new US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the successor to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, will be a major player in global development finance.

A CGD blog. In this episode of Sounds Robotic, host Charles Kenny talks with Carl Benedikt Frey, co-director of the Program on Technology and Employment at the Oxford Martin School, about his fears that the wage stagnation and rocketing inequality that resulted from the first industrial revolution could be repe…

A CGD blog. Today the IFC announced a step forward in its transparency around the use of aid resources to finance private companies. That’s right and proper: When scarce aid, and scarce tax resources, are used to support private firms, citizens of donor countries and recipient countries alike ha…