A CGD blog. Low-income countries account for 0.4 percent of the global economy. Such a small, poor market is not attractive to innovators and researchers, and low-income countries cannot afford to support significant research of their own. That combination means that technological challenges specific to poor co…
Charles Kenny
Books, Papers and Articles
Charles Kenny writes about global development — what’s working, what isn’t, and how the world can do better. An economist who spent fifteen years at the World Bank, he is now a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.
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A CGD blog. The US State Department has collected data on the performance of PEPFAR in 2025, but is yet to officially release it. A Freedom of Information suit is ongoing. In the meantime, some data has become available [link]. And the (potentially draft) headline numbers for 2025 can be compared to 2024: PEPFA…
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A CGD blog. As the United States assumes the presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), it has outlined three priorities: unleashing economic prosperity by limiting regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains, and pioneering new technologies and innovations. There is one reform that cuts …
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A CGD blog. On a planet that is producing more food per person than ever before, it is a moral stain that so many still suffer malnutrition or face the risk of famine. And, if sustained, the recent collapse in global humanitarian funding from $37 billion in 2024 to $21 billion in 2025 will only increase that ri…
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A paper for the Global (Dis)Order international policy programme of the British Academy and Carnegie Endowment. Globally, we are past ‘peak baby’, and many countries are past peak working-age population. Richer economies are seeing plateauing education rates and rising demand for services. All these factors suggest slower growth in richer countries, combined with fewer export opportunities for poorer countries. We could still sustain global growth and convergence over the next 50 years through greater movement of people, but that makes the political economy of migration of central importance to the prospects of global prosperity over the next half century.
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A CGD blog. Humanitarian and global health financing is vital to save lives worldwide. But so is humanitarian and global health data. The 2026 aid budget that the US Congress passed provides sufficient resources to help prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths, but effectively targeting those resources will requ…
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A CGD blog. The ban’s effects will encompass families split apart, jobs opportunities lost, businesses unfounded, and trade and investment deals unsigned. Fewer kids will go to school, others will get sick.
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A CGD blog. In December, UN Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher launched an appeal for 2026 humanitarian funding, reporting that in 2025 “hunger surged… millions went without essential food, healthcare and protection.” He suggested that in 2026, by focusing on those in greatest need, the global humanitarian syste…
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A CGD blog. In February last year, the White House issued an Executive Order for a State Department review of international organizations, conventions, and treaties to which the United States was a party, in order to exit those it considered “contrary to the interests of the United States.” On January 7, a Pre….
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A CGD blog. Three recent papers make the point that we need higher standards and more gradation in our views of global poverty than the World Bank’s extreme poverty line (now set at $3.00) allows, and suggest solutions. But I think they also demonstrate no single metric will achieve all of what we want from a p…
Charles Kenny 