Just in time for the Addis Financing for Development conference, an essay [/collection of blogs] on making the Addis Accord better... Some of the ideas have already been incorporated, sort of, a bit.
Just in time for the Addis Financing for Development conference, an essay [/collection of blogs] on making the Addis Accord better... Some of the ideas have already been incorporated, sort of, a bit.
Bloomberg column suggesting Greece is one more piece of evidence it is a mistake to let the same people forecast growth who are agreeing debt deals.
The Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa in July represents one of President Obama’s last major opportunities to secure his development legacy. This catchily titled CGD policy brief co-authored with Beth Schwanke offers 14 proposals for commitments the United States Government should consider advancing for the Conference on Financing for Development. [Bets in advance on a hit rate of 0.5/14].
A CGD Policy Working Paper. The total scale of incremental investment requirements in infrastructure in developing countries has been estimated at around USD 1 trillion a year, with a range of related studies suggesting numbers between $815 billion to $1.3 trillion. While all such numbers are open to considerable debate, and were not designed to measure the cost of delivering the specific SDG infrastructure targets, they suggest the likely scale of the financing challenge for an SDG agenda which includes universal coverage to adequate housing, water, sanitation, modern energy and communications technologies. The complexity of infrastructure finance in developing countries suggests that external private investment will remain a minor player in the financing of infrastructure for development. Nonetheless, reforms of development finance institutions and multilateral development banks alongside infrastructure pricing in recipient countries could considerably increase financial flows, and the Addis Financing Conference later this year could help provide the authorizing environment for such reforms.
Slightly misleading headline. Go, just remember you'll be pretty useless, and see it as a learning experience --the start and motivation for a life of advocating or working for development. For @BW.
This CGD Policy Paper focuses on invented or created technologies of the type that could (theoretically) be subject to patents and the potential for international agreements including the Addis Financing Conference to better create and share such technologies. It discusses the nature of invented technologies and the standard policy tools used to support its development. It then addresses two separate questions related to inventions and development: ‘what is invented’ and ‘how it diffuses.’ With this background, it goes on to discuss the role of policy tools including patents, tiered pricing, research support, advance market commitments, and prizes in creating development-friendly technology. It concludes with some recommendations for language to be inserted in the Addis Declaration
By 2030 we may have managed to eradicate being poor by the average definition two or three decades ago of the poorest 15 countries with available statistics updated by more or less reliable inflation and purchasing power numbers since then.... That's what happens when you have to change the method of calculating extreme poverty because your boss said it could be eradicated. For @BW.
[That said, should note that means in the last few years I've suggested (a) it may be possible to end extreme poverty defined as $1.25/day, which would be good; (b) that it wouldn't be good enough (c) if the SDGs are going to have the goal of ending extreme poverty we should fix the goal posts and (d) fixing the goalposts means that 'extreme poverty' will be increasingly removed from any country's actual definition of poverty...]
A piece on Addis, Paris, New York, post-2015 and financing for development for the IMF's Finance and Development.
Because there are less of them. For @BW.
A piece with John Norris for Foreign Policy on the history of dams at Inga on the Congo. TLDR: its depressing.
A piece for the UN Chronicle on SDG goal one target one on poverty, pointing out it is unreachable by definition.
There is no doubt that a new set of development goals will be agreed this year but time is fast running out to make sure they matter. For The Guardian.
A CGD Essay previously published as an article on the SDGs and MDGs in Politica Exterior (¿Hemos perdido el rumbo? De los ODM a los ODS).
Developing countries are increasingly robust to shocks. For @BW.
The World Bank is facing a bunch of crises --this might be a way out. For @BW.
Misleading title: soaking the rich would help. But the current US tax regime is bad at that. For @BW.
More and more people are getting married for love. Yay. For @BW.
A book review for the New Statesman. [Update: a review that contains an embarrassing error: I missed Lanchester's entry on credit default swaps. Apologies to Lanchester and readers].
Because rich people don't pay much in the way of taxes in developing countries. For @BW.
You create jobs through growth. We don't know how to promote growth. For @BW.
Getting richer reduces child labor. For @BW.
Social enterprise is lovely but we still need government. For @BW.
Cheap cellphones are the revolutionary force for change. In @BW.
The planet --and America-- is safer than it was ten years ago. For @BW.
People who use less electricity than it takes to run your fridge need more power. For @BW.
Northern California suffered its strongest earthquake in 25 years and no-one died. For @BW.
It would save the world money if we had better health care in the poorest countries. For @BW.
The drug-linked violence that the children are fleeing is in large part our fault. For @BW.
Welcoming the BRICS bank. For @BW.
How Innovation Rewrote the Rules of Foreign Policy --an article for The Breakthrough.
For @BW --it turns out the incomes of poor people went up with food prices --luckily...
They don't learn anything, they don't learn anything useful and there's nothing useful to do with what they've learned. In @BW.
Private schools are a sign of hope in the developing world. In @FP (my last regular column).
A CGD Working paper with Casey Dunning and Jonathan Karver. Perceptions of corrpution have no place in determining aid flows. Impressive response from the MCC.
Bill Gates downplays the corruption problem. He Should. In @BW.