Harvard Center for International Development

Originally recorded on February 12, 2021. Philippe Le Houérou, former CEO of the IFC continued the discussion after a virtual CID Speaker Series event held on February 12, 2021, exploring their work further with CID Student Ambassador Rohit Subramanian. Philippe Le Houérou discussed the reforms and changes implemented at the International Finance Corporations (IFC) from 20016-to 2020. The IFC is t...

Originally recorded on January 29th, 2021. Michael Clemens, Director of Migration, Displacement, and Humanitarian Policy, Center for Global Development and Thomas Ginn, Research Fellow, Center for Global Development continue their discussion after a virtual CID Speaker Series event held on January 29th, 2021, exploring their work further with CID Student Ambassador Sama Kubba. Countries restrict t...

Originally recorded on December 4, 2020. Carolina Sanchez-Paramo, Global Director of Poverty & Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, continues her discussion after a virtual CID Speaker Series event on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic crisis on households, which are significant, pervasive, and worsening in some cases. The design and implementation of an effectiv...

Originally recorded on November 13th, 2020. CID Director Asim I. Khwaja joined us after CID's virtual Speaker Series event for further discussion on his research proposal for governments to face the challenges of COVID-19 faster and better, using the Smart Containment with Active Learning (SCALE) strategy. SCALE is an active learning strategy that tests and refines policy in real-time through a co...

Originally recorded on November 20, 2020 Jenny Perlman Robinson and Molly Curtiss joined us at CID's virtual Speaker Series event and sat down with us for further discussion on their work on scaling and education at the Center for Universal Education(CUE), Brookings Institution. Despite growing evidence on what works to improve access and quality in education, the world continues to face a global...

At this week's virtual CID Speaker Series event, Catalyzing Global Leadership to Contain the Impact of COVID-19 we are joined by featured guest Peter Sands, Executive Director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria after his appearance at the virtual JKF Jr. Forum on October 28, 2020. How do we galvanize a global response to COVID-19 that truly leaves no-one behind? So far OEC...

At this week's virtual CID Speaker Series event we are joined by Neil Gregory, Chief Thought Leadership Officer of the International Finance Corporation or the private investment arm of the World Bank Group for a discussion moderated by Shawn Cole, a professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches and conducts research on financial services, social enterprise, and impact...

On this week's Speaker Series virtual event, we were joined by George Gray Molina, Chief Economist at UN Development Programme's Global Policy Bureau. COVID-19 and the response to the pandemic is driving millions of informal sector and self-employed workers into poverty. George Gray Molina discussed the findings of a recent UNDP brief that provides estimates of a temporary basic income for all poo...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Dr. Aditya Bahadur, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Earth Institute at Columbia University for a discussion on Urban Resilience Traps: Pivoting to A New Paradigm for Reducing Climate Risk in Cities of the Global South. Aditya sat down with CID's Executive Coordinator Rosemary Berberian for a conversation on his research and upcoming book. // R...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Marla Spivack, Research Fellow at CID’s Building State Capability program, and the Research Manager of the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) program where she leads an array of research activities focused on synthesizing the findings of RISE country team work. Marla sat down with CID Student Ambassador Emma Cameron to discuss...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Annette Idler, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She is also the Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Centre, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, and at the Department of Politics and International Relations, all University of Oxford. Annette sat down with CID Stud...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Miguel Angel Santos, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Director of Applied Research at CID's Growth Lab, as well as Tim O’Brien, Senior Manager of Applied Research at CID's Growth Lab. Miguel and Tim sat down with CID Student Ambassador Valeria Mendiola to discuss their research from Jordan on Macro...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell, who was recently re-elected to the British House of Commons. Mitchell is a fellow at Cambridge University; a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University; and a Honorary Professor in School of Social Sciences for the University of Birmingham. Mitchell sat down with CID Student Ambassador Mark Conmy to discuss the Causes and...

In today’s world, most workers are highly specialized, but this specialization can come at a cost – especially for those on the wrong team. New research by Growth Lab Research Director Frank Neffke assesses the importance of the skills of coworkers. Finding coworkers who complement and not substitute one’s skills can significantly impact earning potential. The impact is equal to having a college d...

On this week's Speaker Series podcast, we are joined by Zainab Qureshi, the LEAPS (Learning and Educational Achievement in Pakistan Schools) Senior Program Manager at the Center for International Development’s EPoD (Evidence for Policy Design). Zainab will be speaking about EPoD’s research on alleviating system-level constraints to improve student learning outcomes in Pakistan. // Originally recor...

How important are social constraints and information gaps about the labor market in explaining the low rates of female labor force participation (FLFP) in societies that are undergoing change, but have conservative gender norms? To answer this question, we conducted a field experiment embedded in a survey of female university students at a large public university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We...

What does it take to grow entrepreneurial ecosystems in the developing world? The talk will share some lessons from our experience at Alter across 14 markets in SE Asia and Africa. Specifically, the talk will focus on three aspects of early-stage entrepreneurship in such markets: (i) thin capital markets and the implications for early stage companies and ventures; (ii) the demand-supply gaps in th...

Support for gender equality has increased globally, and studies of this trend usually examine individual- and/or country-level factors. However, this overlooks subnational variation. City-dwellers are more likely to support gender equality in education, employment, leadership, and leisure. Alice Evans, lecturer at Kings College London, sat down with Salimah Samji, Director of the Building State Ca...

We are at a crossroads in the humanitarian community. Despite global commitments made in 2016 to shift power away from international to local actors to lead during crisis response, little has changed. We know that humanitarian action led by responsible governments in crisis-affected countries, assisted and held accountable by civil society, can more quickly save lives and act more appropriately to...

Harvard’s Center for International Development brought together students and scholars from across the university to celebrate 2019 Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer as he spoke about his own innovative work as well as that of his colleagues and co-laureates in the field of international development. Kremer is a member of the CID’s Faculty Advisory Council, which oversees the University-wide research c...

Roughly one in every five births occurs in India.  Data reveal that despite improvements in the last decade, Indian children are still among the most unhealthy in the world.  In the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is home to 200 million people, 45 out of every 1000 babies die in the first month of life.  That is a higher rate of neonatal death than any country in the world except Pakistan.  Why does...

Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as CID Senior Research Fellow Thomas Abt writes in his new book Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools necessary to stem violence in our cities. Coupling the latest social science with firsthand experiences in policymaking, Abt proposes a relentless focus on violence itself—not drugs, gangs, or gu...

The logical extension of today’s ferment in America about white privilege and male entitlement is, at the global level, about the responsibility of the United States and its citizens to the world’s poor, of all races and cultures, and especially to the world’s disempowered women in poor countries. What are the responsibilities to them of us, with privilege and power? Today on the return CID's week...

The creators of the Atlas of Economic Complexity - Harvard Growth Lab’s free online tool that translates economic growth research into policy actions to expand global prosperity - are proud to introduce: Country Profiles, a first-of-its-kind platform that revolutionizes how to think about economic strategy, policy, and investment opportunities for over 130 countries. Country Profiles invite users...

In this podcast, Annie White and Tim Cheston discuss newly released Growth Lab research - 2027 Global Growth Projections. The projections of annualized growth rates to 2027 are based on the latest 2017 trade data and our newly updated measure of economic complexity, which captures the diversity and sophistication of productive capabilities embedded in a country’s exports. Uganda, Egypt, Myanmar, C...