A CGD blog with Justin Sandefur. The White House has presented further details of its FY 2026 budget request. It includes a proposed two-thirds cut to global health and humanitarian funding. Such a reduction is impossible to reconcile with assurances from the administration that it is preserving life-saving assistance. A rough esti…

A CGD blog. FEWS NET, the US-financed famine early warning system, was one of the casualties of the US foreign assistance “pause.” The good news is that it has resumed operations. But what it has to report is deeply concerning.

A CGD blog. In August last year, I made a modest proposal to China’s Minister of Finance regarding IDA, the soft lending arm of the World Bank that works with the poorest countries. I suggested China might want to become an equal IDA shareholder to the US. While Beijing did increase its contribution in the…

A CGD blog. The Trump administration insists it is preserving life-saving assistance as it dismantles USAID. The evidence to date is that it is failing in that task-significant award cancellations and payment delays mean that people are dying. The administration’s proposed budget (which includes a 62 percent cu…

A CGD blog with Rachel Bonnifield. The US pays-by far-the highest prices for on-patent prescription drugs of any country on earth. The White House just issued an executive order purporting to fix this problem. But the proposed solution-that the US should pay the “most-favored-nation” price for prescription drugs to “bring prices fo…..

A CGD blog. On April 22nd, MCC staff were told the agency would be effectively shuttered, with most work immediately suspended. The agency’s model means its spending is concentrated in a few countries. For a subset of those countries, the impact will be considerable.

A CGD blog with Justin Sandefur. We’ve previously looked at the sectoral and geographic impact of the proposed USAID award cuts. But for those who want to see US foreign assistance back on its feet, it is also worth looking at the impact on awardees-the firms, nonprofits, and international organizations that implement USAID projec….

A CGD blog. There remains a lot of uncertainty regarding the status (and legality) of USAID award and staff terminations to date, and even more around the administration’s reorganization plans. But assume things work out as the administration hopes: USAID staff are all fired and the agency is shut down by the e…

A CGD blog. It would be better for the US and global economy if the new tariffs were rolled back everywhere. But it would at least help continue the journey to self-reliance through greater potential for export-led growth if the poorest countries, economies that are utterly marginal to the US trade deficit and …

A CGD blog with Brian Webster. Yesterday, President Trump announced a sweeping change to US trade policy, imposing tariffs larger than those enacted under the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that helped deepen the Great Depression. US markets are responding based on the implications for US business and consumers. But the consequences for…