Testimony on Reviewing Controls to Prevent Mismanagement of Foreign Aid

On March 21, 2024, I gave testimony before the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability at a hearing titled  “Accountable Assistance: Reviewing Controls to Prevent Mismanagement of Foreign Aid.” Luckily, I didn't get too many questions.

The Future of Global Development and Implications for Aid

A speech at the Oxford Martin School. Richer countries are rapidly ageing and productivity is stagnating. Meanwhile, industry - the motor for rapid economic development in the past - employs ever fewer people worldwide. And yet there is still hope for greater, and shared, global prosperity. Declining working age populations in rich countries are demanding ever-more services. A rising, increasingly educated working age population in lower income economies can provide them. This is an immense, mutually beneficial opportunity to create a new development model, and a new model for development assistance. Aid for economic growth traditionally tried to foster the expansion of export-oriented industrial employment in recipient countries through physical investment. In the future, it can foster the expansion of expatriate employment through skills partnerships.

Charles Kenny

Charles is the author of Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More (Basic Books: 2011) and The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest is Great for the West (Basic Books: 2014). He spent fifteen years as an economist in the World Bank, and now works at a Washington DC think tank, the Center for Global Development, where he researches and advocates for policies governing investment, trade, technology and migration that would be good for both developing and industrialized countries alike. In addition, he has studied the economics of happiness. He has a history degree from Cambridge University Masters degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a PhD in Development Studies from Cambridge University.

Charles was a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and a columnist for Bloomberg Business¸ where he wrote on global development and its impact on the US. He has also written for outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Politico, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Time, the Guardian, Vox, Salon, the Economist and CNN.

He has presented at investor conferences including for Eurofinance and for Buttonwood Investments as well as at the Urban Land Institute, the World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute and Legatum Institute events. He has given talks at colleges and universities including Duke, Northwestern, Columbia, and Oxford. He’s spoken at public events including at Town Hall Seattle, Zocalo and Veerstichting. He has appeared on PBS' Ideas in Action, Gesprek Op 3 (Dutch TV) Al Jazeera, CCTV, Vox, Reuters TV and Bloomberg TV. On radio he has been a guest on NPR, KERA, Kojo Nnamdi, and the John Batchelor Show.

Charles can speak on a range of topics related to globalization and global progress and its impact on America, as well as global health and the economics of happiness.  He is an optimist about global progress and its positive impact on America. The product and beneficiary of transoceanic romances, he thinks globalization is an immense force for good, and offers Americans new opportunities to learn, work, invest and improve their happiness and wellbeing.

Here is a one-pager and a CV/resume.  Contact Charles.