Opinions
Recent CommentaryForeign Aid: Diagnosis without Direction10/01/2007 Nancy BirdsallIn a recent review of William Easterly's The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, published in the SAIS Review, CGD president Nancy Birdsall applauds Easterly's diagnosis of the problem with foreign aid: donors favor big, comprehensive, visible projects rather than trying to solve narrow, immediate problems. Easterly proposes a two-fold solution: remodel the entire system to raise accountability and refocus aid toward smaller, specialized programs. Birdsall argues against reinventing the entire aid system, in place of reforming aspects of it to resemble Easterly's model. Global Fund Grant Programs: An Analysis of Evaluation07/03/2007 Steve RadeletThe Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has quickly become one of the world's largest funders of health programs. In this article, originally published in The Lancet, Steve Radelet and Bilal Siddi analyze 140 program grants evaluated by the Global Fund and the association between the programs' evaluation scores and various characteristics of the grants themselves. Among their findings: AIDS and TB programs, and programs implemented by civil society/private sector recipients, tend to have higher scores. The New Global Slave Trade [Foreign Affairs]11/16/2006 Ethan KapsteinThe New Global Slave Trade, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006. This article is reprinted by permission of FOREIGN AFFAIRS (www.foreignaffairs.org), Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. What to Read: Inequality and Development in a Globalizing World (Syllabus)07/26/2006 Nancy BirdsallThis syllabus prepared by CGD President Nancy Birdsall for a course she taught in Bologna, Italy, for students of Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) brings together key readings on inequality and development in a globalizing world. The syllabus also provides links to websites that contain data on inequality and globalization and further readings on each topic. Following the Money in Global Health01/18/2006 Ruth LevineThis article originally appeared in Global HealthLink "Resource tracking" is a hot new topic in global health circles. Far from being of interest only to accountants and statisticians, data on the flow of money – how much, from whom and for what – is the subject of intense debates within the donor community, the policy community in developing countries and civil society "watchdog" groups. Controversy over World Bank trade & poverty estimates12/19/2005 William R. ClineThree years ago the World Bank said that freeing international trade of all barriers and subsidies would lift 320 million people above the $2 a day poverty line by 2015. But new World Bank projections emphasizing $1 a day poverty and based on new data and methods put the number at just 32 million people. CGD/IIE Senior Fellow William R. Cline, author of Trade Policy and Global Poverty, has been examining the Bank's new calculations and argues that the first estimate was closer to the truth. A Hong Kong Declaration12/19/2005 Kimberly Ann ElliottTrade ministers in Hong Kong just barely managed to meet the low expectations they set for themselves, according to Kimberly Elliott, a CGD/IIE joint fellow. "This means that the negotiations still have a chance to reach a meaningful agreement in 2006, but the pace and the willingness to make politically difficult concessions will have to increase substantially," she said. Beyond the Consensus of Washington: New Social Contract in Latin America12/02/2005 Nancy BirdsallThis commentary is a summary of a presentation by Nancy Birdsall delivered in Lima Peru on November 17, 2005 for the Group for the Analysis of Development France must see immigrants' future11/29/2005This op-ed by Audrey Singer and Gregory Michaelidis was Originally published November 20, 2005 in the Baltimore Sun. A Costly Cut11/21/2005 Stewart PatrickWASHINGTON—In its sudden and reckless zeal for budget-cutting, the Republican-controlled Congress is doing President Bush and the nation multiple disservices. Threatening to slash assistance to the most impoverished Americans and forcing Mr. Bush once again to break his public promises to deliver on his Millennium Challenge Account for developing countries are just the beginning. |
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SpeechesMigration Talk: Making Sense of a World on the Move07/20/2007 International Migration in the Long-Run: Positive Selection, Negative Selection and Policy, The World Economic and Social Survey 2004: The Role of International Migration in DevelopmentIn a recent online discussion panel, OneWorld.net posed questions about migration to Michael Clemens, research fellow at CGD. The panel’s objective was to reduce confusion about migration in rich and poor countries. Clemens was joined by Esther Nieves, American Friends Services Committee; and Sandip Roy, New America Media, to answer questions about U.S. immigration and opportunities and responsibilities associated with global migration. Foreign Assistance Reforms: Successes, Failures, and Next Steps - Steve Radelet’s Responses to Questions for the Congressional Record07/06/2007 Steve RadeletCGD senior fellow Steve Radelet prepared this response to questions raised by U.S. Sen. Richard Richard Lugar during a June 12, 2007 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Development, Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection. Radelet proposes the drafting and passage of a new Foreign Assistance Act that would review the human rights and other restrictions and stem earmarks, and urges U.S. support for the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation. Do we still need a World Bank?06/28/2007 Dennis de TrayOn June 14, 2007, Dennis de Tray spoke at a symposium hosted by the American Enterprise Institute entitled "Do We Still Need a World Bank?" Having worked both inside and outside the Bank, his answer was that while the world needs a World Bank-like institution, the current shape of the Bank has to be adjusted to reflect the rising demands of a multilateral development agency. |