What the U.S. Congress Can (and Can’t) Do to Improve Global Education
Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4481, Education for All, a bill that aims to strengthen USAID’s efforts in the realm of education. While the Senate has yet to take up...
View ArticleTransparency Is an Agency-Level Game and DOD Is Coming Up Last
ForeignAssistance.gov is a great idea in theory—a one-stop shop for information about all US foreign assistance spending. In practice, the site has struggled to become a useful and reliable tool due to...
View ArticleCharting the Way Forward: An Initial Framework for a Compact Model for Refugees
As part of a joint CGD-IRC study group, we have been developing concrete ideas on how to move the global community toward providing refugees and their host communities pathways to self-reliance that...
View ArticleMCC Says Data Is in Its DNA—Show Us You Mean It by Using It Right
The country scorecards that serve as the basis for MCC country eligibility decisions aren’t complete, but the data for the particularly weighty indicators—including the must-pass Control of Corruption...
View ArticleAttn: Presidential Transition Teams – 3 Big Ideas and 3 Smart Reforms for US...
Global development isn't exactly a campaign issue. But we at CGD hope it's a policy area both presidential transition teams are taking very seriously. The next US president will need to confront and...
View Article10 (Almost) No-New-Money Ideas for the Presidential Transition Teams on...
In no particular order, a suggested list of things to do—and things not to do.Blog: Rethinking US Development PolicyAuthor(s): Beth Schwanke
View ArticleThe President’s Global Development Council’s Last Hurrah
The President’s Global Development Council released a bang-up set of recommendations as the Obama administration draws to a close.Blog: Rethinking US Development PolicyAuthor(s): Beth Schwanke
View ArticleFour Recommendations from Four Generations of USAID Leadership
What does the collective wisdom of four USAID administrators have to say about the future of the world’s largest development agency? Three former administrators joined current USAID Administrator Gayle...
View ArticlePresident Trump and International Development
President-elect Trump will come into office at a time when Americans are more dependent than ever on global cooperation. Today we revisit why effective US leadership on development matters and how it...
View ArticleHow President Trump Can Make Trade Policy More Inclusive, and More Fair
President-elect Trump has a unique opportunity to, finally, make US trade policy more inclusive and fair, and he could start by getting our own house in order. From a domestic standpoint, it is not...
View ArticleForeign Assistance and the Trump Administration
Here at CGD, much of what we have to say is based on a core premise that too often goes unstated. Namely, that US development policy, with bipartisan support, has made steady progress over many years...
View ArticleComing Soon: MCC’s New Crop of Countries for FY2017
Next Tuesday the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) board of directors will hold its final meeting of the year—and the last under the Obama administration. On the docket? Selecting which...
View ArticleTrump's Trade Policies Pose Risks to Developing Countries
Uncertainties abound for the United States’ developing country trade partners in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president. As I chronicled previously, the US presidential campaign featured...
View ArticleA New Look at US Government Approaches to Country Ownership
Over the past decade, the US government has repeatedly committed to incorporate greater country ownership into the way it designs and delivers aid programs. Though a range of factors—including strong...
View ArticleHere’s Hoping Steve Mnuchin Ignores What John Bolton Has to Say about the IMF...
To say that John Bolton, President-elect Trump’s expected pick for #2 at the State Department, is a well-known UN critic would be an understatement. But it’s well worth noting that he has opinions...
View ArticleAccounting for the Corruption that Counts at the MCC
There’s a lot to be said for good data sense, and one way the Millennium Challenge Corporation could demonstrate such sense next year is to replace their current corruption measure with a better one:...
View ArticleGlobal Family Planning Funding—What Should Funders Be Thinking About Now?
The new US administration may put US funding for family planning—comprising nearly half of all bilateral contributions—at risk. The family planning community still has time to make the case for...
View ArticleForeign Aid in the Trump Administration: Probably Different, but Not...
Foreign aid is often mentioned as the first and easiest thing to cut, particularly in a Republican administration with a Republican Congress. But maybe not. Consider five points.Blog: US Development...
View ArticleThe Tillerson Hearings
No one expects to hear much on development-related matters during next week’s hearing for Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson. But even if they aren’t asked outright, I’ll be listening closely to...
View ArticleImproving Ownership in US Foreign Assistance
To amplify the discussion on country ownership, we convened a panel of high-level policymakers from inside and outside the US government to talk about their experience applying the principle, reflect...
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