IFC 3.1?

A CGD note.  The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is in the process of a considerable transformation, designed to grow its operations and expand their development impact. This paper discusses the rationale and elements of a continuing change agenda, focused on ensuring the IFC best serves its ultimate clients --people in developing countries.

Aid-Financed Mechanisms for Technology Development

A CGD policy paper with Euan Ritchie and Lee Robinson.  This paper outlines the broad rationale for approaches beyond patents to support the development of technologies specifically useful to developing countries and the role for aid-funded approaches within that. It outlines some of the mechanisms that can be used and summarizes their strengths and weaknesses. The exercise suggests the need for an ecosystem of support mechanisms, and a concluding section asks how the United Kingdom’s official development assistance (ODA) for R&D could better support such an ecosystem. The UK government has committed to establishing a new institution to fund non-ODA R&D, modelled on the Advanced Research Projects Agency. We talk about how a similar model would work for development-orientated research, and what amendments may need to be made to ensure ODA-funded R&D reaches its potential.  (see also the policy brief on our conclusions of the research overall.  Bottom line: ODA for R&D is good, how the UK is spending it is bad).

Gender Equality in US Think Tank Leadership: Data from Tax Records

A CGD note with Julian Duggan.  Across the 71 leading US think tanks for which we have data, we find that the average share of trustees and directors that were women was 23 percent, the average share of highly compensated employees that were women was 30 percent, and highly compensated women were paid 92 percent of what highly compensated men were paid. 

New procurement guidelines shed light on secrecy versus public right to know

A piece for the Contracting Excellence Journal with Caroline Anstey, summarizing The Principles on Commercial Transparency in Public Contracts.  

When Does “What Works” Work? And What Does that Mean for UK Aid R&D Spend?

A note for CGD with Euan Ritchie and Lee Robinson.  This paper argues there is a (fuzzy) spectrum of development procedures, for some of which global innovation, evaluation, or “best practice” can be informative, for some of which local evaluation or experimentation can be useful, and for some of which perhaps only practical experience and local wisdom can help. That there is a spectrum of intervention types and research opportunities, and that local evidence is often required, has implications for the kind of research that UK aid can usefully support as part of its R&D program and where that research should happen. In turn, that suggests a reform agenda for the way UK ODA for R&D is currently spent.

Why life expectancy in America is down again

Opioids and a lagging public health response.  In The Economist.

Is political polarisation cutting Thanksgiving dinners short?

Bipartisan dinners are shorter.  In the Economist.

America’s unfair voting laws

ID laws and other restrictions on voting don't lower voter fraud but they do disenfranchise minorities.  For the Economist.

Is it getting harder for American women to combine work and family?

For the Economist: expectations are up, support for parents isn't.

Women, especially younger ones, could swing the mid-terms

Women don't like Donald Trump.  They also appear energized to vote.  For the Economist.

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