The CGD Podcast

Ahead of COP31, CGD's Ian Mitchell speaks with colleague Jonathan Beynon and the World Resources Institute's Melanie Robinson about climate policy. Together they explore what the data say about countries' responsibility for emissions and climate change, discuss the financial implications, and share their wishlists for policy change at COP31 and beyond.   

CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with Wellcome's Charlotte Watts and Refugees International's Jeremy Konyndyk about how scientific progress since 2014 has strengthened our ability to respond to Ebola, how funding cuts are affecting that progress, and the implications for both today's response and our preparedness for future outbreaks.

CGD's Clemence Landers presents highlights from our recent event on what to watch at the Annual Meetings next week. She was joined at the event by CGD's Rachel Glennerster, Markus Goldstein, and Mikaela Gavas, as well as Devex's Adva Saldinger. Together they examined how the World Bank and the IMF can best support the poorest countries at a time of repeated crises.

CGD's David Evans and Rachel Glennerster speak with Kwame Akyeampong, professor at the Open University, about his book Reconceptualising the Learning Crisis in Africa . Together they discuss where the book and the evidence consensus agree and diverge: the framing of the learning crisis, measuring student outcomes, the language of instruction, the potential of accelerated learning programs, the rol...

CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with Princeton's  Seema Jayachandran about how gender inequality can manifest differently in different regions, why GDP and labor access  don't  necessarily align, and what the research shows about how to increase women's access to jobs.  

CGD's Sam Attridge and Nancy Lee speak with British International Investment CEO Leslie Maasdorp about balancing national interests with development mandates, setting reachable targets, and strategies for mobilization and prioritization. 

CGD Board Chair Mohamed A. El-Erian speaks with renowned journalist Judy Woodruff about the Middle East War's impacts on low- and middle-income countries, including how governments can best respond to shocks, implications for the global economy, and what to watch for in the months ahead.

CGD's David Evans speaks with Dipak Naker of the Coalition for Good Schools and CGD's Gabriela Smarrelli on what the data shows about school violence (and what data is missing), how to conduct such research accurately and safely, and effective strategies for changing attitudes and practices around the world.  

CGD's Clemence Landers, Liliana Rojas-Suarez, and Catherine Pattillo look at how the Iran war compares to recent shocks like COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, how governments are responding—from fuel subsidies to rationing and currency interventions—and where the pressure is most acute, including in import-dependent economies in Southeast Asia and across Sub-Saharan Africa.

CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with colleague Kehinde Ajayi and Imran Matin of BRAC University's Institute for Governance and Development about why child marriage persists and what evidence tells us about how to reduce it. They discuss how the drivers vary across contexts, and what policies have been shown to work, including education investments, empowerment programs for adolescent girls, and ca...

Venezuela has experienced one of the deepest economic collapses in modern history. CGD's David Evans, Dany Bahar, and Liliana Rojas-Suarez examine how Venezuela reached this point, the conditions that need to be in place for a credible economic recovery, the role of oil and debt restructuring, and how the country can realistically chart a path out of poverty and back toward stability and growth.

CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with Seth Berkley, former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, about lessons from COVID-19 and how they should shape future vaccine development and delivery.

In this episode, I speak with Ian Mitchell, the lead author of the 2025 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), about what this year's results reveal. We discuss why many countries have slipped in their overall contributions to global development, where progress is emerging, and how the CDI can guide smarter, more coherent policymaking across trade, migration, climate, technology, and development f...

The landscape of global development is shifting —shrinking aid budgets, emerging funding models, and evolving priorities are forcing philanthropic capital to move faster, take greater risks, and fill critical gaps left by governments and multilateral institutions.    What should the role of philanthropy look like? In this time of disruption, philanthropic donors are also presented with an opportun...

From chatbots supporting new mothers and nutrition coaches guiding families, to tutoring tools for children and apps advising farmers, artificial intelligence is beginning to find its place in development. But is it ready—and are we? In this episode of the CGD Podcast, I'm joined by Temina Madon, Executive Director of the Agency Fund, and Han Sheng Chia, CGD Fellow and Director of our new AI initi...

CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with Lord Jim O'Neill and Dr. Akhil Bansal on the nature and scale of the problem of neonatal sepsis, how an advance market commitment could help incentivize the development of a diagnostic, and what steps policymakers can take to help save newborn lives.  

CGD's  Helen Dempster speaks with the Inter-American Dialogue's Manuel Orozco about the key role that remittances play in development, the impact of the new tax, and how remittances could be better supported and managed.

Following the 2025 Development Leaders Conference, CGD's Rachel Glennerster speaks with BMZ's Dirk Meyer and SAIIA's Elizabeth Sidiropoulos about conference takeaways, including whether climate should be a focus for development agencies, how to get more bang for your climate-change buck, and how developing countries might prioritize between climate mitigation and adaptation. 

After a large share of USAID's work was terminated, a small cadre of development experts created Project Resource Optimization, or PRO, to identify highly cost-effective, life-saving programs that were on hold and connect them with philanthropic donors who could fill the gaps. CGD's Erin Collinson speaks with two PRO team members, Rob Rosenbaum and Caitlin Tulloch, about the origins and limits of...

CGD's Sanjeev Gupta and Benedict Clements of Universidad de Las Américas  discuss the considerations that influence the design of sound monetary and fiscal policies, the role of income taxes, and the kinds of reforms that can bring equity to both emerging and advanced economies. 

As the second season of Pandemic Proof comes to a close, host Javier Guzman reflects on the progress made in pandemic preparedness since COVID-19, the challenges we still face, and the rapidly shifting global landscape that will shape what comes next.

Ahead of the African Development Bank's presidential election in May, CGD's Karen Mathiasen and AfriCatalyst's Daouda Sembene interview three of the candidates – Amadou Hott, Samuel Munzele Maimbo, and Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala – on their priorities for the Bank and their views on how to help steer countries through a volatile and uncertain time and achieve their development goals.

Takahiro Tsuda and Atsushi Mimura from the Japanese Ministry of Finance join Javier Guzman to examine current funding mechanisms for pandemic preparedness and response, explore Japan's role in driving global efforts (and insights gained), and discuss potential pathways to strengthen PPR financing.

CGD's Gyude Moore speaks with Hannah Ryder of Development Reimagined and Yunnan Chen of ODI Global about the evolution of China's relationship with Africa, the opportunities presented by FOCAC 9, and where the money should go to do the most good. 

CGD's Kehinde Ajayi speaks with UNICEF's Ruth Graham-Goulder and CGAP's Rani Deshpande about the importance of including adolescent girls' perspectives to inform policy, of working across sectors to provide multi-issue solutions, and of developing financial and economic interventions that reflect adolescent girls' realities.