Center for Global Development
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Center for Global Development
@cgdev.org
The leading think-and-do tank for #globaldev🌍 Celebrating 20+ years of independent research & ideas for global prosperity.
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Hello from CGD’s official @bsky.app account! 👋

Follow us here for our latest work on reducing global poverty & improving lives through innovative economic research that drives better policy.🌍
www.cgdev.org
Center For Global Development
The Center for Global Development works to reduce global poverty and improve lives through innovative economic research that drives better policy & practice.
www.cgdev.org
New vaccines are safe and effective. But are countries getting the most out of them? 💉

Witold Więcek & @jmadankeller.bsky.social highlight how optimizing vaccine doses could expand coverage, save more lives, and stretch tight budgets ⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/3WZwCgt
Smarter Vaccine Doses: A High-Impact Fix for Global Immunization
Hundreds of millions of dollars are typically spent developing a new vaccine. You would assume that by the time the vaccine receives approval, we would know precisely the right dosing regimen: how muc...
go.cgdev.org
November 27, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Shareholders seeking fewer Chinese contractors in MDB projects shouldn’t default to local preferences.

A better option? Policy-based lending, says @charlesjkenny.bsky.social 💡⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/47pdNJy
If You Want China to Win Fewer MDB Financed Contracts, Increase Policy Lending
I have just published a note about enforced local preferences in multilateral development bank (MDB)-financed procurement. The paper assumes the reader believes such preferences might be good for clie...
go.cgdev.org
November 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Vaccine production ambitions are growing across Africa and Latin America.

William Savedoff explains how regional agreements, not isolated national strategies, provide the most reliable path forward:
https://go.cgdev.org/4oqHnnO
Geographical Diversification of Vaccine Production: Challenges for Africa and Latin America
Africa and Latin America face significant obstacles to expanding vaccine production, including limited effective demand, shortages of skilled personnel, and weak regulatory systems. Regional cooperati...
go.cgdev.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Narratives blaming Venezuelan migrants for Ecuador’s violence don’t hold up against the data.

Analysis of 5yrs of detention data shows migrants are underrepresented in crime and largely detained for nonviolent, economic offenses. More from Dany Bahar:
https://go.cgdev.org/4nve56n
Data Against Fear: What the Numbers Say About Venezuelan Migrants and Crime in Ecuador
To devise and design all immigration policy solely through the lens of crime—particularly as part of broader efforts to combat gangs—is misguided and likely to be ineffective. Instead, policy should f...
go.cgdev.org
November 26, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Center for Global Development
Does Lead Exposure Really Kill Five Million People Per Year?

(Probably yes, while there's limited causal evidence, the one causal study with comparable data suggests similar effect sizes to the much larger observational literature)

www.cgdev.org/blog/does-le...
November 26, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Are we ready for AI in development?

@hanshengchia.bsky.social & @agencyfund.bsky.social's Temina Madon join @markusgold.bsky.social for a CGD podcast discussing where AI shows promise, what risks it poses, and how to ensure it improves lives:
https://go.cgdev.org/4nw5VKX
CGD Podcast: Where AI Meets Development with Temina Madon and Han Sheng Chia
From chatbots supporting new mothers and nutrition coaches guiding families, to tutoring tools for children and apps advising farmers, artificial intelligence is beginning to find its place in develop...
go.cgdev.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Center for Global Development
🆕 Cash transfers & agency: What Nigerian couples reveal about household power

Mehrab Bakhtiar @ifpri.org, Marcel Fafchamps, @markusgold.bsky.social @cgdev.org, Kenneth Leonard & Sreelakshmi Papineni on the interplay between empowerment & norms ⤵️ voxdev.org/topic/social...
Cash transfers and agency: What Nigerian couples reveal about household power
In Nigeria, cash transfers to women increase their desire for agency but only when husbands can't see it – revealing the complex interplay between economic empowerment and social norms.
voxdev.org
November 25, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Slowing uptake and US pushback are reshaping the landscape for IMF's Resilience and Sustainability Facility. 🛣️

CGD experts offer recommendations to maximize impact with the funds that remain:
https://go.cgdev.org/49qLFHb
Reviving the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead
The International Monetary Fund’s newest lending instrument—the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF)—was launched in October 2022 to help low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries stre...
go.cgdev.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
A new wave of Global Skill Partnerships is emerging to respond to rising labor migration needs.🗺️

@helen-dempster.bsky.social & Ahmed Iqbal explore how these programs are being designed—and what that reveals about the evolution of the GSP model:
https://go.cgdev.org/4oyT9fA
The Next Generation of Global Skill Partnerships: How the Model’s Evolved to Meet Current Challenges
Building on previous pilots—including the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), Youth, Employment, and Skills in Kosovo(YES), and Pilot Project Addressing Labour Shortages Through Innovative La...
go.cgdev.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
The Trump admin has introduced changes to the global flows of people, finance, & more—w/ major repercussions for women in LMICs.

Both directly & indirectly, the policies across aid, migration, & trade have harmed women. @charlesjkenny.bsky.social explains:
https://go.cgdev.org/4rmWZKS
Women Have Been Disproportionately Harmed by Trump Administration Aid, Migration, and Trade Policies
The first year of the second Trump administration has seen a broad assault on global flows of goods, services, finance, and people, with an outsize impact on low- and middle-income countries. As a sid...
www.cgdev.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:00 PM
🌟ICYMI: Experts recently gathered at @CGDev for the 10th Annual Birdsall House Conference.

Together, speakers & attendees shared strategies, research, & more to keep gender equality at the heart of global development. Catch up on the full discussions:
https://go.cgdev.org/4r1SDIX
November 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
The 1993 World Bank book on the East Asian Miracle argued rapid growth came from market fundamentals + export push, not industrial policy.

@nbirdsall.bsky.social asks: was that caution too much a product of its post-Soviet, neoliberal era? ⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/48iGKWH
The World Bank’s East Asian Miracle: Too Much a Product of Its Time?
he 1993 publication of a World Bank book on the East Asian Miracle explained the extraordinarily rapid growth of Japan and seven other economies of East Asia (at 5 percent a year) between 1965 and 199...
www.cgdev.org
November 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The World Bank plans to “operationally align” its research arm. But the changes could undermine its ability to deliver rigorous, independent analysis free from client or internal pressure.

More from @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @eeshani.bsky.social ⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/43vNSgK
The World Bank Group Reorganization: A Retreat from Research Quality?
A recent PowerPoint presentation presents the outline for the institutional structure of “The WBG Knowledge Bank.” But a knowledge bank owes it to its stakeholders impartial and transparent considerat...
go.cgdev.org
November 24, 2025 at 8:59 PM
The cost of AI access has plummeted, but 1.7B mobile phones w/o internet are still shut out. High SMS markups make text-based AI unaffordable, blocking services from health to agriculture.🌐

Daniel Björkegren maps out the costs by country & what can be done:
https://go.cgdev.org/4828EHy
SMS Charges May Be Inhibiting the Use of AI for 1 Billion People
Smartphone users across the globe increasingly have access to a variety of services that make use of AI, but high markups on text messages will prevent the world’s poorest from making use of the techn...
bit.ly
November 24, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Center for Global Development
How does your country rank on its effort on international development?

For over 20 years, we assessed policies. This edition sees an unprecedented drop in efforts, with 24 of 38 countries regressing.

But there are neglected areas beyond aid - policymakers and advocates should think more broadly.
As aid budgets decline, the ways rich countries are driving development are more important than ever.

🌟NEW: @cgdev.org’s Commitment to Development Index ranks the world’s richest nations, spotlighting impacts on the poorest & where nations can step up ⬇️🧵#CDI2025
go.cgdev.org/49ZJoD5
Commitment to Development Index 2025
With levels of development finance falling, it is more important than ever to look beyond aid. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) does just that—ranking the world’s most powerful countries on p...
go.cgdev.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Center for Global Development
Always love playing around with the #CDI2025 data. This year, Germany scores a whopping 100% on the migration indicator, with Czechia, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Sweden rounding out the top 10. The UK all the way down in 22, and the US further behind...

www.cgdev.org/cdi#/
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Center for Global Development
Delighted that the #CDI2025 has launched today. It contains a whole load of data about what countries are doing for development, including some (we think politically feasible) ideas about where advocates and policymakers could focus their efforts in the context of shrinking aid budgets.
As aid budgets decline, the ways rich countries are driving development are more important than ever.

🌟NEW: @cgdev.org’s Commitment to Development Index ranks the world’s richest nations, spotlighting impacts on the poorest & where nations can step up ⬇️🧵#CDI2025
go.cgdev.org/49ZJoD5
Commitment to Development Index 2025
With levels of development finance falling, it is more important than ever to look beyond aid. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) does just that—ranking the world’s most powerful countries on p...
go.cgdev.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:40 PM
With the green transition high on the agenda at today's AU-EU summit, Euan Ritchie urges the EU to ensure that its pivot towards more aid in its neighborhood doesn’t jeopardize its commitment to help the most at-risk countries adapt to climate change:
https://go.cgdev.org/4pkdZQ7
EU Adaptation Finance: Put Vulnerable Countries First
All else equal, adaptation finance should mostly be spent in the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. Determining vulnerability isn’t easy; many indices attempt to measure it, and the...
go.cgdev.org
November 24, 2025 at 12:30 PM
The first African Union and European Union summit in three years starts today.🌍

In a new blog series, CGD experts explore what’s at stake for Africa and Europe—and what a stronger, fairer partnership could look like in practice:
https://go.cgdev.org/49votYw
EU-Africa Summit 2025
On 24–25 November 2025, leaders from the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) will meet in Angola for their first summit in three years. The last took place just after the COVID-19 pandemic ...
www.cgdev.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Four MDBs recently evaluated their gender & dev. work over the same period—offering a rare chance to compare progress.

At a @CGDev event on Nov. 5, evaluation heads from @adb.org, @ifad.org, the World Bank & @eib.org discussed similar findings & what can change next:
https://go.cgdev.org/4ifeIzX
Aligning Incentives for Gender Impact: Shared Insights from Four MDBs' Independent Evaluations
By fortunate coincidence, the independent evaluation offices of four multilateral development banks (MDBs) recently assessed progress in their institutions' gender and development work over roughly the same period--offering a unique opportunity to compa...
go.cgdev.org
November 22, 2025 at 1:14 AM
🌍Ahead of the #G20 summit in South Africa, @cgdev.org's Commitment to Development Index shows major economies backsliding on trade, technology, and other commitments that underpin global growth.

See where nations can step up—explore #CDI2025 ⬇️💡
https://go.cgdev.org/3XDK0a7
The Commitment to Development Index
The Commitment to Development Index ranks the world’s most powerful countries on their dedication to policies that affect more than 5 billion people living in poorer nations, scoring countries relativ...
www.cgdev.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:57 PM
🎧Tune in 👉Project Resource Optimization—an independent initiative hosted at CGD—is discussed as BBC Business Daily hosts examine the fallout from the cuts to US foreign aid.

Listen here! ⬇️
https://go.cgdev.org/44osMRM
BBC World Service - Business Daily, What's next for USAID funded projects?
We examine the fallout from the cuts to US foreign aid
go.cgdev.org
November 21, 2025 at 6:53 PM
"While some nations improved on migration or environment, overall the trend is backward with arms exports, trade barriers and fossil fuel subsidies all rising."

@ianmitchell1.bsky.social discusses @cgdev.org's Commitment to Development Index with @reuters.com ⬇️#CDI2025
https://go.cgdev.org/49w2AZ8
World's richest nations are pulling back from global development efforts, study shows
Two dozen of the world's richest nations, including the United States and Japan, are pulling back from their global development push, a study published on Thursday shows, with many slashing aid budgets and cash funnelled through multilateral lenders.
go.cgdev.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:14 PM
The North East Universities Development Consortium conference showcased 150+ new economic development studies.

@daveevansphd.bsky.social and Almedina Music break down 60+ of them, highlighting insights on childhood development, education, and more 👇
https://go.cgdev.org/43HWh0S
What’s the Latest Research on Human Development in Economics? A Roundup from NEUDC 2025
Earlier this month, the North East Universities Development Consortium annual conference hosted presentations of more than 150 recent economic development studies. We went through each of those 60+ st...
go.cgdev.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
As aid budgets decline, the ways rich countries are driving development are more important than ever.

🌟NEW: @cgdev.org’s Commitment to Development Index ranks the world’s richest nations, spotlighting impacts on the poorest & where nations can step up ⬇️🧵#CDI2025
go.cgdev.org/49ZJoD5
Commitment to Development Index 2025
With levels of development finance falling, it is more important than ever to look beyond aid. The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) does just that—ranking the world’s most powerful countries on p...
go.cgdev.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM