Center for Global Development
Encyclopedia
The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a non-profit think tank
based in Washington, D.C. that focuses on international development
. It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott
, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, C. Fred Bergsten
, and Nancy Birdsall
. Birdsall, the former Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank
and former Director of the Policy Research Department at the World Bank
, became the Center's first President.
CGD's stated mission is "to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change in the U.S. and other rich countries through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. Recently, Foreign Policy Magazine's Think-Tank Index listed CGD as one of the top 15 think-tanks in the US. The Center considers itself to be a 'think and do' tank, with an emphasis on producing research that is channeled into practical policy proposals.
The Center is well known for leading debt relief programs, specifically in Nigeria
and Liberia
. CGD Vice President Todd Moss first proposed the Nigerian debt buy-back, which resulted in the Paris Club
of rich nations forgiving 60% of $31 billion of debt. Former CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet advised Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her senior advisors on debt relief and aid coordination.
CGD is also known for creating the program called advance market commitments
to encourage vaccine development for specific diseases. The G7 endorsed the approach and the Gates Foundation and five countries gave $1.5 billion to create a vaccine against strains of pneumonia.
With Foreign Policy Magazine, CGD produces the Commitment to Development Index
. Generated annually since 2003, the index ranks countries based on how their foreign aid, trade, migration, investment, environment, security and technology policies encourage global development.
, education
, globalization
and global health
, as well as the impact of trade
and migration
on development.
The Center is well known for its research on aid effectiveness
. CGD President Nancy Birdsall
recently developed Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid, an initiative aimed to improve aid effectiveness by focusing foreign aid on outcomes, not inputs.
In 2008, CGD produced a compilation of essays, edited by Nancy Birdsall
, called "The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President." These essays give policy recommendations to solve international problems, such as global health, foreign aid policy, migration, global warming and direct foreign investment.
CGD recently published a report on the dangers of drug resistance in “The Race against Drug Resistance: When Medicines Fail,” which the Global Health team launched on June 14, 2010.
In addition to printed publications, CGD maintains several blogs, including Views From the Center and the Global Health Policy blog.
Other research topics listed on their website include capital flows/financial crises, debt relief
, environmental issues, economic growth
, governance
/democracy
, international financial institutions
, finance
, food
and agriculture
, inequality
, population, poverty
, private investment, security and development, and data sets and resources.
In 2003, David Roodman created the Commitment to Development Index
with Foreign Policy magazine and Mapping Worlds. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks and analyzes nations’ financial and political commitments to development every year. The index uses interactive graphs and analyzes how countries contribute to development in seven policy areas: aid (both quantity as a share of income and quality), trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology.
Other initiatives include the HIV/AIDS Monitor and Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid, MCA Monitor, Demographics and Development in the 21st Century, Carbon Monitoring for Action, Closing the Evaluation Gap, Combatting Drug Resistance
, Fighting the Resource Curse
through Cash Transfers, Forest Monitoring for Action (Forma), Improving Migration Data, and U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan
.
Goodluck Jonathan
, Paul Romer
, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell
and many others.
During Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to CGD on January 6, 2010, she emphasized the importance of development and said it was “time to elevate development as a central pillar of our foreign policy and to rebuild USAID into the world's premier development agency.”
CGD Hosts an annual lecture series called the Sabot Lecture series, in honor of the late development economist Richard "Dick" Sabot
. Each year, the Sabot Lecture hosts a scholar-practitioner who has made significant contributions to international development, combining academic work with leadership in the policy community.
Past Sabot speakers include Lawrence Summers
, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
, Lord Nicholas Stern, Kemal Dervis
and Kenneth Rogoff
.
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
based in Washington, D.C. that focuses on international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...
. It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott
Edward W. Scott
Edward W. "Ed" Scott, Jr. is an American businessman, philanthropist, and former senior United States government official. Along with Bill Coleman and Alfred Chuang, he founded enterprise software company BEA Systems....
, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, C. Fred Bergsten
C. Fred Bergsten
C. Fred Bergsten is an American economist, author, and political adviser. He has served as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department and has been director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, formerly the Institute for International Economics,...
, and Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, USA, and former executive vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. She co-founded CGD in November 2001 with C. Fred Bergsten and Edward W. Scott, Jr...
. Birdsall, the former Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...
and former Director of the Policy Research Department at the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, became the Center's first President.
CGD's stated mission is "to reduce global poverty and inequality by encouraging policy change in the U.S. and other rich countries through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community. Recently, Foreign Policy Magazine's Think-Tank Index listed CGD as one of the top 15 think-tanks in the US. The Center considers itself to be a 'think and do' tank, with an emphasis on producing research that is channeled into practical policy proposals.
The Center is well known for leading debt relief programs, specifically in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
. CGD Vice President Todd Moss first proposed the Nigerian debt buy-back, which resulted in the Paris Club
Paris Club
The Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of some of the world's biggest economies, which provides financial services such as war funding, debt restructuring, debt relief, and debt cancellation to indebted countries and their creditors...
of rich nations forgiving 60% of $31 billion of debt. Former CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet advised Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her senior advisors on debt relief and aid coordination.
CGD is also known for creating the program called advance market commitments
Advance market commitments
An advance market commitment is a binding contract, typically offered by a government or other financial entity, used to guarantee a viable market if a vaccine or other medicine is successfully developed. As a result of such a commitment, the market for vaccines or drugs for neglected diseases...
to encourage vaccine development for specific diseases. The G7 endorsed the approach and the Gates Foundation and five countries gave $1.5 billion to create a vaccine against strains of pneumonia.
With Foreign Policy Magazine, CGD produces the Commitment to Development Index
Commitment to Development Index
The Commitment to Development Index , published annually by the Center for Global Development, ranks the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Rich and poor countries are linked in many ways; thus the Index looks...
. Generated annually since 2003, the index ranks countries based on how their foreign aid, trade, migration, investment, environment, security and technology policies encourage global development.
Research
CGD conducts research within a range of topics that impact global poverty and people of the developing world. Topics include aid effectivenessAid effectiveness
Aid effectiveness is the effectiveness of development aid in achieving economic or human development . Aid agencies are always looking for new ways to improve aid effectiveness, including conditionality, capacity building and support for improved governance.-Historical background:The international...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and global health
Global health
Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations. Health problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact, are often emphasized...
, as well as the impact of trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
and migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
on development.
The Center is well known for its research on aid effectiveness
Aid effectiveness
Aid effectiveness is the effectiveness of development aid in achieving economic or human development . Aid agencies are always looking for new ways to improve aid effectiveness, including conditionality, capacity building and support for improved governance.-Historical background:The international...
. CGD President Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, USA, and former executive vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. She co-founded CGD in November 2001 with C. Fred Bergsten and Edward W. Scott, Jr...
recently developed Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid, an initiative aimed to improve aid effectiveness by focusing foreign aid on outcomes, not inputs.
In 2008, CGD produced a compilation of essays, edited by Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, USA, and former executive vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. She co-founded CGD in November 2001 with C. Fred Bergsten and Edward W. Scott, Jr...
, called "The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President." These essays give policy recommendations to solve international problems, such as global health, foreign aid policy, migration, global warming and direct foreign investment.
CGD recently published a report on the dangers of drug resistance in “The Race against Drug Resistance: When Medicines Fail,” which the Global Health team launched on June 14, 2010.
In addition to printed publications, CGD maintains several blogs, including Views From the Center and the Global Health Policy blog.
Other research topics listed on their website include capital flows/financial crises, debt relief
Debt relief
Debt relief is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. From antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, in particular agricultural debts and freeing of debt slaves...
, environmental issues, economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
/democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, international financial institutions
International financial institutions
International financial institutions are financial institutions that have been established by more than one country, and hence are subjects of international law. Their owners or shareholders are generally national governments, although other international institutions and other organisations...
, finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
, population, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, private investment, security and development, and data sets and resources.
Initiatives
The Center considers itself a “think and do” tank, and thus has multiple initiatives to implement their policy suggestions. These, initiatives attempt to give specific policy recommendations to organizations while creating a dialogue.In 2003, David Roodman created the Commitment to Development Index
Commitment to Development Index
The Commitment to Development Index , published annually by the Center for Global Development, ranks the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Rich and poor countries are linked in many ways; thus the Index looks...
with Foreign Policy magazine and Mapping Worlds. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks and analyzes nations’ financial and political commitments to development every year. The index uses interactive graphs and analyzes how countries contribute to development in seven policy areas: aid (both quantity as a share of income and quality), trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology.
Other initiatives include the HIV/AIDS Monitor and Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid, MCA Monitor, Demographics and Development in the 21st Century, Carbon Monitoring for Action, Closing the Evaluation Gap, Combatting Drug Resistance
Drug resistance
Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug such as an antimicrobial or an antineoplastic in curing a disease or condition. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used...
, Fighting the Resource Curse
Resource curse
The resource curse refers to the paradox that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, specifically point-source non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources...
through Cash Transfers, Forest Monitoring for Action (Forma), Improving Migration Data, and U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Events
CGD hosts about 90 public and private events a year that draw more than 7,000 participants. Events have featured speakers such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President of NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Jonathan
Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, BNER, GCON is the 14th Head of State and current President of Nigeria.He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the...
, Paul Romer
Paul Romer
Paul Michael Romer is an American economist, entrepreneur, and activist. He is currently the Henry Kaufman Visiting Professor at New York University Stern School of Business and will be joining NYU as a full time professor beginning in 2011...
, U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell
Andrew Mitchell
The Right Honourable Andrew John Bower Mitchell MP is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield...
and many others.
During Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to CGD on January 6, 2010, she emphasized the importance of development and said it was “time to elevate development as a central pillar of our foreign policy and to rebuild USAID into the world's premier development agency.”
CGD Hosts an annual lecture series called the Sabot Lecture series, in honor of the late development economist Richard "Dick" Sabot
Dick Sabot
Richard "Dick" Sabot was an economist, scholar, farmer, and Internet pioneer who was co-founder of Tripod.com, one of the first and most successful dot-coms, in 1992...
. Each year, the Sabot Lecture hosts a scholar-practitioner who has made significant contributions to international development, combining academic work with leadership in the policy community.
Past Sabot speakers include Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Henry Summers is an American economist. He served as the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Director of the White House United States National Economic Council for President Barack Obama until November 2010.Summers is the...
, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed in July 2011 as Nigeria's “de facto prime minister” and the new Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Prior to this appointment, she was the Managing Director of World Bank and has also held the position of a Finance Minister and Foreign...
, Lord Nicholas Stern, Kemal Dervis
Kemal Dervis
Kemal Derviş is a Turkish economist and politician, and former head of the United Nations Development Programme. He was honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to mainstreaming Japan's development assistance policy through the United Nations." In 2005, he was ranked 67th in the...
and Kenneth Rogoff
Kenneth Rogoff
Kenneth Saul "Ken" Rogoff is currently the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is also a chess Grandmaster.-Early life:...
.
Resident Fellows
- Nancy BirdsallNancy BirdsallNancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, USA, and former executive vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. She co-founded CGD in November 2001 with C. Fred Bergsten and Edward W. Scott, Jr...
- Michael Clemens
- William Cline
- Kimberly Ann Elliott
- Alan Gelb
- Benjamin Leo
- Todd Moss
- Mead Over
- Vijaya Ramachandran
- Liliana Rojas-Suarez
- David Roodman
- William Savedoff
- Arvind Subramanian
- David Wheeler
Visiting Fellows
- Owen Barder
- Thomas Bollyky
- Satish Chand
- Rena Eichler
- April Harding
- Ethan Kapstein
- Julius Kiiza
- Darius Nassiry
- Andrew NatsiosAndrew NatsiosAndrew S. Natsios is an American civil servant who has served in a number of Massachusetts and high level federal government positions. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and was appointed as Special Coordinator for International Disaster...
- Nuhu RibaduNuhu RibaduMallam Nuhu Ribadu is a former Nigerian government anti-corruption official. He was the pioneer Executive Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , the government commission tasked with countering corruption and fraud...
- John Simon
- John Williamson
Non-Resident Fellows
- Abhijit BanerjeeAbhijit BanerjeeAbhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian economist. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- Jenny Aker
- Pranab BardhanPranab BardhanPranab Kumar Bardhan is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley . Educated in Presidency College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England, he had been on the faculty of MIT, Delhi School of Economics, and Indian Statistical Institute, before joining Berkeley...
- Chris Blattman
- Oeindrila Dube
- James Habyarimana
- Ricardo HausmannRicardo HausmannRicardo Hausmann is a former Venezuelan Minister of Planning and Head of the "Presidential Office of Coordination and Planning" and current Director of Harvard's Center for International Development and a Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at John F...
- Devesh Kapur
- Dean KarlanDean KarlanDean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Research Fellow at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- Michael KremerMichael KremerMichael Robert Kremer is a development economist and is currently the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and was named a Young Global...
- Carol J. Lancaster
- Nora LustigNora LustigNora Lustig is the Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics in the Department of Economics at Tulane University and a non-resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development...
- Theodore H. Moran
- Guillermo Perry
- Raymond Robertson
- Paul RomerPaul RomerPaul Michael Romer is an American economist, entrepreneur, and activist. He is currently the Henry Kaufman Visiting Professor at New York University Stern School of Business and will be joining NYU as a full time professor beginning in 2011...
- Jeremy Shiffman
- Duncan Thomas
- Peter Timmer
- Nicolas van de Walle
- Jeremy Weinstein (on-leave)
See also
- Carbon Monitoring for ActionCarbon Monitoring for ActionCarbon Monitoring For Action is a website that contains a searchable database that estimates the carbon emissions of power plants and power companies around the world. Launched in November, 2007, its database is updated quarterly. It is produced and financed by the Center for Global Development....
(CARMA) - Commitment to Development IndexCommitment to Development IndexThe Commitment to Development Index , published annually by the Center for Global Development, ranks the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Rich and poor countries are linked in many ways; thus the Index looks...
- Nancy BirdsallNancy BirdsallNancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, USA, and former executive vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. She co-founded CGD in November 2001 with C. Fred Bergsten and Edward W. Scott, Jr...
- International developmentInternational developmentInternational development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...