"The US administration’s policies over the last year should serve as a cautionary tale. The major lesson—which has been painfully absorbed by scores of countries over centuries of commerce—is that diversification of markets and products is key" www.cgdev.org/publication/...

Tariff Whiplash in Africa: What Happened and What’s to Come

Under this administration, reciprocity is a bedrock principle of trade policy, making a simple extension of AGOA highly unlikely. In addition, USTR is exercising alternative tariff authorities to thei...

cgdev.org

This is not good. www.kas.de/en/web/mned-...

First experiences with CBAM from selected African countries

By Mercy Mugala Ng’ambi, Aida K. Nattabi, Seutame Maimele, Insaf Guedidi and Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

kas.de

I find this, 1806 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Jenner, so moving 🥺

Dad died on Monday. A brief remembrance. (Picture: Anne-Katrin Purkiss, NPG)

Report in the UK Independent citing UNHCR suggests that data covering more than three million refugee women across 20 nations suggests infant mortality (first year) rose from 8.3 to 17.5 per 1,000 2025-6; and under-five mortality rose 50%.

The great Anthony Kenny - RIP -on Philosophy Bites philosophybites.com/podcast/anth...

Here is Bryan Magee talking with Anthony Kenny about medieval philosophy, especially Augustine and Aquinas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpub...

Medieval Philosophy - Bryan Magee & Anthony Kenny (1987)

YouTube video by Philosophy Overdose

youtube.com

New blog: Use New Philanthropy for a Maximum Vaccination Strategy Hopefully there's about to be a lot more effective-altruist-adjacent philanthropic money around. My pitch on spending it: vaccinate everyone against everything all the time....

This seems... perfectly reasonable? World Bank will lend up to $2bn to China over next five years, but probably not lend after that (by which time the country should be clearly into high income status). finance.yahoo.com/economy/poli...

World Bank confirms plan to phase out China lending by 2031

The World Bank on Thursday confirmed that it plans to phase out its lending to China by 2031, according to the organization's new country partnership framework (CPF) for the world's second-largest eco...

finance.yahoo.com

A new note for CGD: Beyond Belt and Road: Responding to the Evolution of China’s Financing for Infrastructure. China has pretty much given up on finance for publicly owned infrastructure.

A quick note on the impact of the Trump administration ending Temporary Protective Status for 350,000 immigrants from Haiti today.

This is just wrong. Most World Bank IDA countries are above the IDA threshold ($1,325 GNI/capita), meant to preserve scarce concessional financing for the poorest countries. Countries below the threshold got just 54 percent of IDA resources.

New article for the German journal Welternährung: How Emigration Can Lift Developing Countries www.welthungerhilfe.org/global-food-...

How Emigration Can Lift Developing Countries

Development models based on industrialisation and export are a thing of the past. In future, strategies for the migration of labor are required - which benefit both countries of origin and high income...

welthungerhilfe.org

Good stuff from @alanbeattie.bsky.social, although we cannot have a decent society if migrants (and other humans) are mainly seen as serving the needs of the economy. Maybe ministers think AI will magically replace all migrant labour or that middle managers displaced by AI will pick the veg

Governments are scared of tackling the immigration dilemma

Rich economies need workers but their voters don’t like migrants

ft.com

Who should qualify for official development assistance (ODA)? Euan Ritchie and @charlesjkenny.bsky.social argue that ODA eligibility should account for purchasing power and use a lower graduation threshold—not new vulnerability measures. https://go.cgdev.org/4udhlqn

Any Change to ODA Eligibility Should Lower the Graduation Criteria and Account for Purchasing Power

ODA is a valuable and increasingly scarce resource that has its greatest impact in the world’s poorest countries. Any effort to reform the ODA eligibility requirements should be designed to increase t...

cgdev.org

New note with (largely by) @euanaritchie.bsky.social: Any Change to ODA Eligibility Should Lower the Graduation Criteria and Account for Purchasing Power The OECD DAC coalition of donors is thinking about redefining ODA, including the income threshold. That threshold should be lower.

Survey suggests 60 percent of funded startup founders in Africa have studied or worked outside Africa. Emigration is a growth strategy. www.nber.org/papers/w35261

Startups in Africa

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

nber.org

All the trade not aid language rings more than a bit hollow when you are slapping tariffs left and right and stopping people coming to make deals.

PBS News@pbsnews.org · 3mo ago

The almost 50 U.S. embassies and consulates that are processing visa applications will be reduced to 20 in the coming weeks, according to three U.S. officials and an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. https://to.pbs.org/4dITud7

oops

National Foundation for American Policy@nfapresearch.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New Research: ICE arrests harm local economies by reducing consumer spending. @profzeke.bsky.social: “The economic damage done to local communities by this administration’s approach to immigration enforcement is widespread, indiscriminate and persistent.” @mclem.org www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

Dear foot Meet projectile Shot by hand Led by brain Full of straw

Free Movement@freemovement.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Long thread alert 🧵 1. UK universities increasingly market start-up hubs and incubators to international students. But many arrive to find their immigration conditions prohibit the very activities those programmes encourage. We look at the student visa trap.

WBG hasn't been worried about conflicts of interest between IFC and World Bank because the two “are separate legal entities, with distinct objectives, management, information flows and governance processes.” ...not any more. So, what's the institution doing about that?

Charles Kenny@charlesjkenny.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Blog: Too Cavalier About Conflicts of Interest at the World Bank? The Private Sector Investment Lab and the IFC-World Bank unit mergers both raise concerns about conflict of interest policies at the World Bank Group.

@davidpilling.bsky.social on Dangote. Perhaps necessary for Nigerian industrialization? Still sad.

Blog: Too Cavalier About Conflicts of Interest at the World Bank? The Private Sector Investment Lab and the IFC-World Bank unit mergers both raise concerns about conflict of interest policies at the World Bank Group.

Enjoyed writing this for the new magazine In Development: Where’s My Ministry For Emigration? On the new age of mass migration and what it could mean for the developing world. indevelopmentmag.com/wheres-my-mi...

Where’s My Ministry For Emigration? – In Development

evidence and argument for a developing world

indevelopmentmag.com

ICE activity => unemployment for the US born. For every immigrant ICE arrests, one US-born worker loses their job. Effect is concentrated amongst non-college educated. www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...

Heightened ICE enforcement harms US-born workers, shrinks workforce

A new study shows that heightened immigration enforcement reduces employment opportunities for some U.S. born men while shrinking the overall workforce,

colorado.edu

Relying on emigration as a growth strategy in this global climate risky, but also true of trade. And as the rich world ages, not convinced it will be harder to find a new place to move than a new place to export. One opportunity is expanding in aggregate, the other shrinking.

Charles Kenny@charlesjkenny.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Obviously I'm more optimistic about the potential upside, but I'd definitely agree that migration as a growth strategy both carries risks and isn't primarily about absolute numbers.

Obviously I'm more optimistic about the potential upside, but I'd definitely agree that migration as a growth strategy both carries risks and isn't primarily about absolute numbers.

Gavin Jackson@gavinjackson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Inspired by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social new paper on emigration as a development strategy I visited the Indian state of Kerala, which has certainly escaped poverty by sending expats to the Gulf but doesn’t look like it will get rich with that approach. economist.com/finance-and-...

Inspired by @charlesjkenny.bsky.social new paper on emigration as a development strategy I visited the Indian state of Kerala, which has certainly escaped poverty by sending expats to the Gulf but doesn’t look like it will get rich with that approach. economist.com/finance-and-...

Can countries grow richer by exporting people, not goods?

That depends where those people end up

economist.com

The IFC has the potential to be a major player in the world’s poorest countries—but right now, it isn’t delivering. @charlesjkenny.bsky.social argues it’s time to shift toward supporting country-led industrial development strategies, working with governments as key partners. go.cgdev.org/4ug7aSn

IFC and IDA Countries: Past Time for a New Approach

The IFC has the potential to be a macroeconomically significant player in the world’s poorest countries that most need a more vibrant private sector. Sadly, however, it provides very little finance to...

go.cgdev.org

New paper: IFC and IDA Countries: Past Time for a New Approach The World Bank's private sector arm is being subsidized by its public sector arm to work more in the poorest countries. It is working less in the poorest countries. This is not smart. A thread.