Timing Matters: Lessons from Government Support to Firms During COVID-19 Governments around the world provided unprecedented support to firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Bank’s SME-Support Measure Dashboard, for example, tracked 1,500 government measures to sup...

How much did timing matter for government support to firms during #COVID19?

New analysis finds support worked best when delivered early and phased out quickly.

www.cgdev.org/blog/timing-matters-less...

Assessing the UK’s International Development Reset Last week the Foreign Secretary set out how the government would implement the major cuts to the UK’s aid budget announced a year ago. At an event we held the same evening, the Development Minister Ba...

The UK’s aid “reset” is shifting toward crisis response.

Humanitarian spending is rising even as the overall budget falls—but Africa funding is set to drop by over half, with less going to the poorest countries.

Read more: www.cgdev.org/blog/assessing-uks-inter...

Global Vaccine Security Still Needs International Cooperation: Are Middle Powers the Key? “International relations” seems like an oxymoron these days, with diplomacy faint and bombs exploding. Countries that once relied on alliances and negotiation only a decade ago are disregarding the be...

When geopolitical “heavyweights” dominate vaccine production, access becomes more fragile.

William Savedoff argues middle powers must collaborate to overcome access barriers.

Read more: www.cgdev.org/blog/global-vaccine-secu...

Are Aid Agencies Paying Attention to What Works in Education? This blog is the first in a series examining evidence use among international aid agencies and national governments, as resources get ever tighter. The series will focus specifically on the uptake of ...

Are education aid projects paying attention to what works?

New CGD analysis of a decade of World Bank and FCDO projects finds growing uptake of “smart buys” like targeted instruction and structured pedagogy—but gaps remain.

www.cgdev.org/blog/are-aid-agencies-paying-attention-what-works-education

The Global Collapse in Funding for the Food Insecure 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 gl...

Global food insecurity hasn’t improved much since 2022. But aid has dropped sharply, including in countries with large food-insecure populations.

@charlesjkenny.bsky.social argues aid should be better targeted to crises across Africa, South Asia, & Central America:
https://go.cgdev.org/3MA5iDB

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The Global Fund is at a crossroads as donor support shrinks and calls for reform intensify.

In a Tough Times, Tough Choices brief, CGD experts propose three “radical simplification” shifts to protect impact and stretch scarce resources:
https://go.cgdev.org/4bSqWxl

One Year In, What Do We Know About Humanitarian and Development Spending Under Trump? With new data, we examined both obligations (commitments) and outlays (disbursements) for several of the core US international assistance accounts over the last calendar year. Across nearly every acco...

One year into the second Trump administration, new data shed light on development and humanitarian spending.

Obligations and outlays show declines across global health, migration & refugee assistance, and more:
https://go.cgdev.org/4ceD7ED

Beyond Measuring Teacher Time on Task: Increasing It In the global push to address the crisis in foundational learning, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa, the focus has rightly been on improving the quality of teaching. But even the most innovative...

Teacher time on task remains a major barrier to learning across sub-Saharan Africa. Absence from school, absence from class, and lost instructional time all play a role.

Experts examine potential solutions—and where evidence gaps remain:
https://go.cgdev.org/4qhr3G5

Don’t Scrap the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact, Make It Better Last month the UK development minister discussed in parliament the possibility that she might scrap the “Independent Commission for Aid Impact”. While critics have accused her of simply trying to avoi...

The UK is considering scrapping the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. But it plays a key role in scrutinizing aid and strengthening accountability.

@leecrawfurd.bsky.social and @ianmitchell1.bsky.social propose 5 reforms to improve its value:
https://go.cgdev.org/4toR09E

Funding cuts and political backlash are threatening global progress on gender equality.

At CGD’s 10th Birdsall House Conference, participants discussed how to build a bulwark against these headwinds. Kehinde Ajayi shares key takeaways:
https://go.cgdev.org/45L3gHf

Refugees Bring Aid. Just Saying That Can Improve Social Cohesion. Hosting refugees doesn’t have to be perceived as zero-sum. When hosts see that aid strengthens their own communities and understand its connection to refugees, we see that support for refugees increas...

Many refugee-related aid programs also support host communities—but that connection isn’t always clear.

@thomasginn.bsky.social and Travis Baseler find that making the link explicit can significantly improve attitudes toward refugees:
https://go.cgdev.org/4rollmN

A Roadmap for AI That Speaks the World’s Languages For AI to benefit all people, it will need to speak their languages and understand their worlds. AI works well in English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese—but that leaves 4 billion people whose native...

"AI works well in English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Chinese—but that leaves 4bn people whose native tongues & local conditions are not represented. They are being left behind."

CGD experts call for a better AI system that speaks the world's languages:
https://go.cgdev.org/4bnYHVb

Time for an International Development Research Projects Association 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 signifi...

There are humanitarian and strategic reasons for the G20 to support faster growth in the poorest countries.

@charlesjkenny.bsky.social outlines policies the group could pursue—together, these steps could accelerate growth while advancing G20 interests:
https://go.cgdev.org/4btyjJO

Time for an International Development Research Projects Association 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 signifi...

There are humanitarian and strategic reasons for the G20 to support faster growth in the poorest countries.

@charlesjkenny.bsky.social outlines policies the group could pursue—together, these steps could accelerate growth while advancing G20 interests:
https://go.cgdev.org/4btyjJO

A Renewed EU Budget Support Framework to Maximise Leverage and Impact Drawing on a comparative assessment of international best practices and financial modelling of alternative grant–loan configurations, this paper explores how EU budget support can be strengthened to e...

The EU has a finite supply of grants for budget support to its partner countries. In a new report with @cgdev.org colleagues, we show that most of these grants are used where concessional loans could suffice. We propose fixing the grant-loan mix to maximise impact at no extra cost to the EU budget.

Pandemic Financing The G20 High Level Independent Panel sets minimum annual benchmarks for pandemic financing and urges governments to take action by or before the September

The G20 High Level Independent Panel also recommends that MDBs enable at-risk financing for advance purchases of medical countermeasures during pandemics.
nam.edu/pandemic-fin...

Ensuring Pandemic Financing for Middle-Income Countries Masyita Crystallin & Rachel Glennerster call on multilateral development banks to commit now to providing at-risk funding for bets on vaccines.

The World Bank board is discussing at-risk financing this week. Are MDBs ready to help countries borrow for vaccines and therapeutics before regulatory approval during the next pandemic? @rglenner.bsky.social and Masyita Crystallin argue they must. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/m...

Why Is the EU Still Giving Grants to Countries that Could Borrow? Rethinking EU Budget Support Ahead of the 2028-2034 MFF Budget support—providing funds directly to partner governments to be spent through national budgets—is a cornerstone of the European Union’s external action toolkit. In 2023, the EU managed €11.1 bill...

A share of EU grant funding goes to countries that could instead take concessional loans.

Analysis from CGD & Lion’s Head Global Partners shows how recalibrating the grant–loan mix could boost financing and development impact under the next MFF:
https://go.cgdev.org/4bohQpZ

Battery Recycling Is a Far Bigger Source of Lead Exposure Than We Thought Policymakers are increasingly interested in tackling global lead exposure. One critical obstacle is that we don’t have a clear sense of what the most common sources of exposure are. The single largest...

We know unsafe recycling of car batteries exposes people to lead—but how much does it contribute globally?

A new paper from Theo Mitchell & @leecrawfurd.bsky.social shows that it could drive a third of all lead exposure in LMICs:
https://go.cgdev.org/49Z9wMR

We're thrilled to announce the 1st Annual CGD Women in Leadership Conference!

We'll convene experts to examine why promotion systems fail to deliver equitable leadership outcomes—and what that failure means.

Happening May 21. Save the date!
https://go.cgdev.org/4bBq3bL

The Institute for Global Politics Women’s Initiative at Columbia University recently published the “Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage report, ft. analysis from CGD experts on the impact of inaction on child marriage.

Here's more on what they found:
https://go.cgdev.org/4lq6bvE

CGD Podcast: Tackling Child Marriage with Imran Matin and Kehinde Ajayi In this episode, I speak with Imran Matin of BRAC University’s Institute for Governance and Development and my CGD colleague Kehinde Ajayi about why child marriage persists and what evidence tells us ...

Tune into a new @CGDev podcast!

@rglenner.bsky.social speaks with Imran Matin and Kehinde Ajayi on why child marriage persists, and what evidence tells us about how to reduce it. They discuss the varying drivers, what policies work, and more:
https://go.cgdev.org/3OTI0cX

DebtTalks Season 2, #11 - Retrenching aid in a volatile world This episode features Paola Subacchi in conversation with Clemence Landers.

Catch CGD's @clemencelanders.bsky.social discussing aid cuts and the crisis of development on the DebtTalks podcast: www.sciencespo.fr/chair-sovere...

Skills on the Move: Linking Labour Mobility and Vocational Training Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is often touted as an important tool in low- and middle-income countries struggling with high levels of unemployment and large skills gaps. As a ...

Today, @cgdev.org and @irexintl.bsky.social launched our new research, linking TVET and labour mobility. The video recording is now live, and please get in touch to discuss more!

✍ Read the research: www.cgdev.org/tags/skills-...
📅 Catch up on the event: www.cgdev.org/event/skills...

The “Triple Threat” Facing Think Tanks For over 100 years, think tanks have been instrumental in shaping policy around the world, developing ideas and synthesizing complex information for policymakers, political leaders, and journalists. H...

"Think tanks are now facing a 'triple threat'—a shifting funding landscape; AI; and rising polarization—all which intersect and reinforce each other."

Helen Dempster & Catarina Afonso dos Santos identify ways in which think tanks can adapt:
https://go.cgdev.org/3P0P1Zp

How is the UK Aid Watchdog Viewed within FCDO? This blog examines all published Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) business cases for aid projects to explore how prominently ICAI reviews have featured, and finds that ICAI reviews ar...

The UK's development minister is considering scrapping the aid watchdog ICAI—but Euan Ritchie finds it plays a meaningful role in aid decision-making.

He explores FCDO business cases, finding 1 in 7 reference ICAI reviews. Read on:
https://go.cgdev.org/40igAzR

What Now for UK Climate Finance? This blog examines what the numbers show—in the context of ICF performance, the shrinking aid budget, and the new $300 billion global target. It then sets out a practical six-point approach that fits ...

As the UK prepares to set a new international climate finance (ICF) commitment, reports that it could be cut to £9bn raise alarm.

@jonathanbeynon.bsky.social examines what the numbers show—and provides a six-point plan to protect UK climate credibility:
https://go.cgdev.org/3OYJX7N

Governing Tax Expenditures: Lessons from Four Advanced and Emerging Market Economies Tax expenditures are among the most significant yet least visible instruments of public policy. Through exemptions, deductions, reduced rates, and preferential regimes, governments pursue economic, so...

Tax expenditures are among the most significant yet least visible instruments of public policy, globally equaling 3.7% of GDP and 23% of tax revenue.

New analysis from CGD experts compares its governance in Brazil, France, India, and the UK:
https://go.cgdev.org/40OuCt8

What Are We Learning about the Impacts of—and Solutions to—School-Related Violence? School-related violence undermines students’ safety, learning, and other educational outcomes, as well as the overall well-being of both students and teachers. We convened researchers from a range of ...

CGD recently convened researchers to share perspectives on how to address the global challenge of school-related violence.

Here are some major takeaways—specifically on the scale of the problem, impacts on particularly vulnerable groups, and more:
https://go.cgdev.org/3OUeTGb

The World Bank Doesn’t Need to Generate More Knowledge. It Needs to Want It. At least since former World Bank President Jim Wolfensohn coined the phrase “knowledge bank,” there have been periodic efforts to strengthen evidence-based policymaking at the World Bank. They have fo...

If the World Bank is serious about being a “knowledge bank,” Shanta Devarajan and @eeshani.bsky.social argue, it must cultivate not just the ability to produce evidence but a hunger for using it:
https://go.cgdev.org/4u8auzD