A CGD blog. The US Millennium Challenge Corporation’s scorecard system has long included flawed measures around governance and corruption, but reforms this year have made the impact of these indicators even worse, ensuring scorecards systematically discriminate against the poorest countries where MCC’s support …

A CGD blog. The first year of the second Trump administration has seen a broad assault on global flows of goods, services, finance, and people, with an outsize impact on low- and middle-income countries. As a side effect of some of these policies and the direct intent of others, these actions have had a particu…

Aid Isn’t Fairy Dust is a CGD note. Long-term changes and the lessons of the past decade suggest rhetoric around what aid can accomplish needs to be dialed down. It is largely macroeconomically irrelevant in middle-income countries and has a weak record in leveraging or crowding in other resources. But aid still has a vital…

A CGD Policy Paper. The World Bank has “ambitious” climate targets that have been accompanied by a growing proportion of its lending being labeled as climate finance. At the same time, the way that finance is defined makes it difficult to know how different the World Bank’s portfolio would look absent a climate finance target.…

A CGD blog with Ian Mitchell et al. As COP30 begins in Belem, Brazil, against a backdrop of tighter budgets, political headwinds, and a retreating US, questions remain over whether this summit can deliver real action on climate and development. From the launch of a new tropical forest fund to efforts to build a carbon…

A CGD blog. How much do World Bank targets, rules about project appraisals considering mitigation and adaptation, and a shadow price of carbon make a difference to what the World Bank actually finances? In a new policy paper, I try to answer that question looking at both finance trends and the project appraisal…

A CGD blog. I have just published a note about enforced local preferences in multilateral development bank (MDB)-financed procurement. The paper assumes the reader believes such preferences might be good for client countries. Of course, many of those calling for such preferences are not as concerned with develo…

A CGD blog with Eeshani Kandpal. A recent PowerPoint presentation presents the outline for the institutional structure of “The WBG Knowledge Bank.” But a knowledge bank owes it to its stakeholders impartial and transparent consideration of all the available evidence, as well as the generation of new evidence where it is needed. And…

A CGD blog with Sanjeev Gupta. As the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings get underway, five CGD experts lay out what they’re paying attention to, from sovereign debt swaps to US comments about IMF mission creep.

A CGD blog with Markus Goldstein. The United States-long the world’s largest provider of lifesaving assistance and the largest humanitarian donor to many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa-saw a sharp reversal in early 2025. The US administration imposed a temporary funding freeze, cancelled most assistance awards, and clos…