Research Topics

The Center for Global Development focuses on the development policies of rich countries as they relate to the developing world. We also extend our focus beyond rich-world capitals to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of these policies in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe-Russia, and Latin America.

Much of the discussion on development is about foreign aid. Quality of aid, however, is every bit as important as quantity. CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet leads the Center’s analysis of current foreign development assistance programs and proposals for innovation in aid delivery.

CGD examines the impacts of financial regulations on capital account volatility, as well as mechanisms to further domestic financial deepening in emerging markets to prevent instability and enable growth. The Center’s research also deals with approaches to crisis resolution and the potential of foreign direct investment to promote growth.

CGD research on debt relief is shaping the debate with concrete proposals for accelerated debt relief, including recent work on restructuring Nigerian debt, mobilizing IMF gold to finance debt relief, and replacing loans with grants to allow poor countries to break out of the poverty trap.

The Center has committed itself to improving our understanding of the relationship between development and economic growth. Though growth is a necessary condition for development, not all growth benefits the poor. Senior Fellow Peter Timmer leads CGD research which explores strategies for ensuring that economic growth is “pro-poor,” and that agencies such as the Millennium Challenge Account encourage growth that benefits all economic sectors.

Recognizing that education is a lynchpin of development - and the focus of much development assistance - the Center for Global Development investigates promising new approaches for rich countries to help improve education outcomes in developing countries. A focus of research by Senior Fellow Maureen Lewis, Nancy Birdsall, and others is the beneficial effects that educating girls can have on health and social development, as well as economic growth.

From climate change, to sustainable development, to natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami, environmental factors have a significant impact on the fortunes of rich and poor countries alike. CGD research looks at the economic, political, and security implications of these environmental factors, and offers pragmatic policy solutions to meet these challenges.

CGD recognizes the importance of global health as a critical component of development, and actively engages in policy research to improve the outcomes of donor decision-making in this area. Under the direction of Ruth Levine, the Center's Global Health Policy Research Network (PRN) convenes specialized Working Groups of academic, policy and implementation experts to identify global health problems, conduct technical analyses, and develop viable solutions.

The globalization of markets can and has brought mutual benefits to both the rich and the poor. Yet there is contention over how these benefits are divided, and there is an increasing recognition that global markets require good global politics. CGD believes that good global politics are critical to the battle against global poverty and unrealized human development, and to a more just and fair as well as a more stable and prosperous global economy. CGD President Nancy Birdsall leads the center's work on the politics and economics of globalization.

CGD recognizes that strong institutions that set the context for effective governance are key to generating development, and our research in this area focuses on how rich world policies can be better targeted towards strengthening governance systems in developing countries, through avenues of intervention such as foreign aid and trade policy.

The Center is committed to reducing inequality: the enormous – and growing – gaps between the richest and poorest countries. CGD work in areas including global public health, aid effectiveness, foreign direct investment, trade, migration, and other areas, contribute to reducing poverty and inequality.

CGD research examines ways the IFI’s - the IMF, World Bank, Multilateral Development Banks (MDB’s), and other large development agencies - can become more responsive to the needs of developing countries, can better understand the impact of their work, and can ensure that growth better reaches the country’s poor.

Humans have always migrated as a way to improve their condition. Today, the flows of skilled and unskilled migrants from developing countries to other parts of the world are of intense interest to many policymakers. Though sensible migration and border policies may be a path to decreased poverty in the developing world, and stable labor markets in the industrialized world, few issues evoke such contention.

Adopted at a global summit in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent a global compact between rich and poor countries to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. All 191 UN member states agreed to pursue goals that include reducing extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, and reducing infant mortality. As member states meet in 2005 to assess progress toward achieving the goals, CGD research looks at the feasibility that the goals can be achieved, and highlights policies and practices that developing nations might emulate.

This page highlights CGD research on private investment, innovations in development finance, and privatization. It also includes work analyzing programs designed to encourage entrepreneurship and policies that affect the quantity and quality of capital flows to low-income countries.

Understanding the linkages between security and development has become urgent in a world where terrorism, weak state capacity, public health crises, and economic contagion can cross borders with ease. Stewart Patrick heads CGD’s work on security and development, building on our 2004 Commission on Weak States and US National Security, and its publication, On the Brink.

CGD research includes William R. Cline’s work on the impacts of liberalizing trade policy on global poverty, Kimberly A. Elliott’s work on agriculture, textiles, and labor standards and Randall Soderquist's work on international trade and finance. We also focus on regional trade agreements such as AGOA and CAFTA, industry lobbies, and the development implications for negotiations at the WTO.

Data is critical to the work done by the Center. On this page you will find data compiled by CGD experts for their research, as well links to other sources of development data.