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.
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 speech at the Oxford Martin School. The world’s richest nations have made considerable global financing promises to developing countries—including a $300 billion annual pledge for climate. But in the last few months aid budgets have been slashed across Europe and in the United States, even as financing is diverted from development and adaptation to projects that have little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, attempts to unlock trillions in private investment at the project level using billions in aid have comprehensively failed. How can we effectively fund both climate action and development when current financing approaches are falling woefully short? Concessional finance for development and adaptation in the poorest countries, profitable lending for development and mitigation in richer developing countries.
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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 sub….
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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…
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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…..
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For the New York Times. Some of the current disorder could be pandemic aftershocks.
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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.
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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….
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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…
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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 …
Charles Kenny 