Nancy Birdsall

CGD non-resident fellow Paul Romer is a professor at Stanford University and is one of the leading growth economists of our time. He will discuss his idea for a profoundly new way to reduce poverty in the developing world: chartering new cities to create centers of growth and prosperity within developing countries. These cities let people voluntarily move to a place with rules that provide security, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life. Charter cities give leaders more options for improving governance and investors more opportunities to finance socially beneficial infrastructure projects. They also harness the forces that have been among the most successful at reducing poverty in developing countries over the past few decades.

Please join us in honoring Diego Hidalgo Schnur, the 2009 winner of the Commitment to Development Ideas in Action Award, sponsored jointly by the Center for Global Development (CGD) and Foreign Policy magazine. Hidalgo’s career reflects his resolute dedication to helping the world’s poorest people. He is the founder or key sponsor of numerous organizations committed to promoting development and democracy across the globe. These include: Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA), which produces the Humanitarian Response Index; the Foundation for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa (FRIDA), an NGO that promotes cooperation and development projects in the continent’s poorest countries; and the Toledo International Centre for Peace (CITpax), a Spanish think tank. Hidalgo also serves as president of the Fundación par alas Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior, (FRIDE), a Madrid-based think tank that provides innovative ideas on Europe's role in the international arena. The award, bestowed annually since 2003, honors an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution to changing attitudes and policies towards the developing world.

Andrew Mitchell, MP, UK Shadow Minister for International Development, will be speaking about the UK Conservative Party's development policy and plans, including the main elements of the "green paper" issued recently. One World Conservatism lays out the Tory strategy for fighting global poverty and how the UK aid regime may change if the Conservative Party wins next year's elections.

Forest clearing in developing countries is an enormous contributor to global warming, accounting for about 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. The Bali Action Plan seeks ways to reward countries for reducing these emissions--an agenda known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Effective implementation of REDD is an intense topic of discussion in the negotiations leading up to Copenhagen. Many observers envision financial flows in the billions of dollars per year, and substantial pilot efforts are already being sponsored by UN-REDD, the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), and the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative.

The World Bank recently released the long-awaited report of a high-level commission on World Bank governance headed by former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo. The report, requested by World Bank president Robert Zoellick, offers a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing the bank. The Center for Global Development is hosting a Washington launch and discussion of this important report, with President Zedillo presenting the key recommendations. A panel discussion, moderated by CGD vice president Lawrence MacDonald, will follow with CGD president Nancy Birdsall, Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím, and Arvind Subramanian, joint senior fellow with CGD and Peterson Institute.

Decisions made at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh will have far-reaching implications for billions of people around the world. But a billion people who live in the world’s smallest and poorest countries have no representative at the table. And hundreds of millions of other desperately poor people who live in the emerging powers have little assurance that their concerns will be represented. A panel discussion at the University of Pittsburgh on the eve of the Summit aims to address this problem. Participants in the panel—current and former senior officials, plus leading experts and advocates for global poverty reduction—will offer a variety of perspectives on the G-20 response to the global economic crisis and the challenges ahead, with a focus on the well-being of the world’s poor.

The global financial crisis that originated in the developed economies has hit low-income countries hard. As they were coping with the food and fuel price shocks of 2008, the crisis caused a sharp decline in world trade, falling commodity prices, and dropping remittances. In response, the IMF has undertaken a series of reforms aimed at supporting these countries. This initiative culminated in July with the announcement of significant new resources for low-income countries, interest rate relief on all concessional loans through 2011, and new concessional lending instruments designed to better meet the diverse needs of those nations. On September 17th, the Center for Global Development will host IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn for a speech titled “Helping Low-Income Countries Cope with the Global Financial Crisis.” The event, which will be moderated by CGD President Nancy Birdsall, will provide an opportunity to discuss the outlook for the developing world before both the September 24-25 G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh and the IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul next month.

CGD Event Special Notice:
Collective action by the world’s largest economies coordinated through G-20 summits in Washington and London has gone a long way to avert a global economic crisis. But the G-20 is not yet an adequate forum for addressing urgent global problems, and other crises threaten. Will the third G-20 summit, to be held in Pittsburgh later this month, rise to these challenges? How can U.S. leadership make a difference?

CGD president Nancy Birdsall will address these questions--and offer practical policy suggestions--in a talk titled "The Crisis Next Time: U.S. Leadership at the Pittsburgh G-20 and Beyond." Francis Fukuyama, director of the International Development Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and David Lane, president and CEO of ONE, will kick off the discussion that will follow.

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515-0128 Brad J. Sherman (D-CA), Chairman June 3, 2009 TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building: DATE: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 TIME: 1:00 p.m. SUBJECT: Foreign Policy Implications of U.S. Efforts to Address the International Financial Crisis: TARP, TALF and the G-20 Plan WITNESSES: Nancy Birdsall, Ph.D. President Center for Global Development Mr. Kevin L. Kearns President United States Business and Industry Council Mr. Roger Robinson, Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer Conflict Securities Advisory Group (Former Senior Director of International Economic Affairs at the National Security Council) Damon Silvers, Esq. Associate General Counsel American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel) The Honorable Terry Miller Director Center for International Trade and Economics The Heritage Foundation (Former Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council) NOTE: Witnesses may be added.