As funding for gender equality shrinks, where should limited resources go? Kelsey Harris and @eeshani.bsky.social make the case for investing in the systems and structures that help other interventions work better and enable lasting change. https://go.cgdev.org/4wPFO6c

Foundational Investments for Gender Equality: A Call for the Investments in Structures and Policies that Make Other Interventions Work Better

Rigorous evidence on cost-effective interventions must guide the development community, but these interventions will underperform without certain enabling conditions—conditions that can only be made f...

cgdev.org

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%.

Is just rebranding Business Schools, no?

Luke Ontario@coolhand.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m with the boomers on this one. Burn it all down

Student protests over alleged corruption in India's medical entrance exam reflect deeper concerns about opportunity and accountability. @eeshani.bsky.social explores why the exams are one of India's few pathways to intergenerational mobility and why trust in that system matters. go.cgdev.org/4xaiAbU

Student Protests Over Corruption in India’s Rare Pathway to Intergenerational Mobility

For about six weeks now, thousands of young Indians have camped out in nonviolent protest and hunger strikes in New Delhi. This situation has now hardened into a serious political challenge for the go...

cgdev.org

Liz, a teacher friend of mine, points out that Damon is Nomad spelled backwards. 🤣

Proud of the community taking shape at @ideadevecon.bsky.social — 3,700+ development economists from 134 countries in only 3 weeks! 🌍

International Development Economics Association@ideadevecon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Three weeks ago, IDEA opened its doors to development economists everywhere. The response has been extraordinary: 3,700+ scholars from 134 countries have joined the community. See who's taking shape — where we are, where we work: idea.devecon.org/community.html 🌍

The lack of diagnostics, vaccines and medicines for diseases that primarily affect low-income countries is basically a market failure Companies won't invest to develop new products, because there's no likely buyer for them Hence, Advance Market Commitments www.cgdev.org/publication/...

NeoTest: Accelerating Neonatal Sepsis Diagnostics

Neonatal sepsis kills one newborn every 45 seconds. Defined as a bloodstream infection in the first 60 days of life, it is responsible for 400,000–700,000 deaths per year—more young lives than malaria...

cgdev.org

Welcome to IDEA!

What did we learn at CGD’s first annual Women in Leadership Conference? Women are entering IFIs in roughly equal numbers to men, but leadership gaps persist. @eeshani.bsky.social and Kelsey Harris examine the structural barriers shaping who reaches the top. go.cgdev.org/4ebjP2j

Can periods of rapid growth and poverty reduction make governance challenges easier to ignore? A new CGD blog explores how denying issues like corruption and elite capture can erode trust, weaken reform efforts, and contribute to political and economic instability. https://go.cgdev.org/3QcM0Gk

The Costs of Denial

Rapid growth and poverty reduction can lead policymakers and the international community to deny the existence of governance problems such as corruption and elite capture. When this denial increases d...

cgdev.org

Excellent @cgdev.org conference today on one of my fave topics #genderequity at work! - @eeshani.bsky.social

Center for Global Development@cgdev.org · 4mo ago

🔴 #NowLive: Up next at @cgdev.org’s 1st Annual Women in Leadership Conference: From Pipeline to Power — a keynote conversation with Eliana La Ferrara, moderated by Pamela Jakiela. Join the conversation! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oNR...

NEW: Tiny footprints. A blue blanket. The autopsy reports of babies who died after not receiving a vitamin K shot at birth included heartbreaking details about how small the babies were — and what items they had with them when they died.

What I Can’t Forget About the Babies Who Died After Not Receiving a Vitamin K Shot

Babies have died after not receiving the vitamin K shot at birth. Their autopsy records underscore how preventable their deaths could have been.

propublica.org

📣 Join us for the 1st Annual CGD Women in Leadership Conference! We'll convene experts to examine why promotion systems fail to deliver equitable leadership outcomes—and what that failure means. Register today! https://go.cgdev.org/4bBq3bL

Cholera deaths in Africa nearly doubled in 2025, reaching 7,500, up from about 3,800 in 2023 and 2024. Analysis by @eeshani.bsky.social, @charlesjkenny.bsky.social, Brian Webster, and @markusgold.bsky.social shows the disease became more deadly, with higher fatality rates. go.cgdev.org/49g4jk5

Blog with @eeshani.bsky.social @markusgold.bsky.social and Brian Webster Cholera Deaths Nearly Doubled in Africa in 2025. Cuts to Aid May Have Contributed. 7,500 reported cholera deaths in SS Africa in 2025, ~2x 2024/2023.

PEPFAR supports #HIV treatment for more than 20 million people worldwide. But new data shows testing fell from 21.9M to 17.2M, weakening the pipeline of new diagnoses and treatment. @eeshani.bsky.social and Brian Webster explain why “stable” numbers may be misleading. https://go.cgdev.org/3QGbStY

PEPFAR’s Stable Numbers are Hiding Lost Progress

Last week, the State Department released the first PEPFAR dataset on Spotlight since it picked up the program. The data cover the period July through September, 2025. PEPFAR provided antiretroviral th...

cgdev.org

If you were horrified watching elected leaders run & scramble because of gun violence, just imagine how my daughter Jaime felt in school running from an active shooter before she was killed. Now, become a part of the solution & only vote for people determined to address gun violence in America.

www.cgdev.org/blog/pepfars...

PEPFAR’s Stable Numbers are Hiding Lost Progress

Last week, the State Department released the first PEPFAR dataset on Spotlight since it picked up the program. The data cover the period July through September, 2025. PEPFAR provided antiretroviral th...

cgdev.org

Intriguing: On April 7th, the World Bank publishes a report on Nigeria’s economy. One of the recommendations: open petrol imports to bring prices down. That would be bad news for the profits of Nigeria’s largest refinery, owned by Aliko Dangote.

As the Integrity crew splashed down TO THE MINUTE of their estimated arrival and hit the BULLSEYE, this is a reminder that Katherine Johnson was an absolute genius. My God. #NASA #ArtemisII

This week we featured research on teachers, fiscal tightening, shadow banks and more! Read a summary of this work here: https://voxdev.org/topic/week-development-economics-voxdev-10042026

This week in development economics at VoxDev: 10/04/2026

This week we featured research on teachers, fiscal tightening, shadow banks and more!

voxdev.org

Health taxes on sugar and ultra-processed foods are gaining traction worldwide. But in many low-income settings, diets are shaped less by price than by what’s available. @eeshani.bsky.social argues without access to nutritious food, taxes alone won’t fix malnutrition. https://go.cgdev.org/4tlZLQP

Why Health Taxes Alone Won't Fix Malnutrition in Poor Countries

Health taxes on sugar seem to have captured the zeitgeist: Mexico's soda tax, the UK's sugar levy, South Africa's Health Promotion Levy, a sugar tax in the Philippines, and so on. The evidence on thes...

cgdev.org

At a moment of rising global crises, the #WorldBank should be operating at full strength. @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @eeshani.bsky.social argue an opaque reorganization is sidelining expertise and weakening its ability to respond. https://go.cgdev.org/4c08se1

The World Bank’s Self-Inflicted Crisis

The World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings arrive at a moment of increasing global disorder. Both the Bank and the IMF have an important role in helping client countries deal with the associated crises. B...

go.cgdev.org

Blog: The World Bank’s Self-Inflicted Crisis www.cgdev.org/blog/world-b...

The World Bank’s Self-Inflicted Crisis

The World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings arrive at a moment of increasing global disorder. Both the Bank and the IMF have an important role in helping client countries deal with the associated crises. B...

cgdev.org

New blog with Eeshani Kandpal: The World Bank’s Self-Inflicted Crisis. The World Bank is undertaking some extremely odd internal reforms: ▪️ A centralization of expertise that appears to replicate Jim Kim’s “One World Bank Group” model that was widely considered a failure ...

Making a good case for "humanitarian" targeted cash transfers given the war's effects on food prices: www.cgdev.org/blog/when-oi... @eeshani.bsky.social @leecrawfurd.bsky.social

The Iran War Oil Shock Will Hit the Hungry Hardest—Cash Should Be Part of the Response

The US–Israel war on Iran has already led to a spike in oil prices. While wealthier countries focus on fuel prices, for those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this could mean something far...

cgdev.org

The Iran war oil shock will hit the hungry hardest. The same food price increase can mean 3× larger income losses for the poorest households. @leecrawfurd.bsky.social and @eeshani.bsky.social on why cash should be part of the response. https://go.cgdev.org/47KhM36

The Iran War Oil Shock Will Hit the Hungry Hardest—Cash Should Be Part of the Response

The US–Israel war on Iran has already led to a spike in oil prices. While wealthier countries focus on fuel prices, for those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this could mean something far...

cgdev.org

The Iran War Oil Shock Will Hit the Hungry Hardest—Cash Should Be Part of the Response (new @cgdev.org blog with @eeshani.bsky.social) www.cgdev.org/blog/when-oi...

In this short essay in BMJ Global Health, we draw attention to how standardised “global”measurement approaches obscure diversity, marginalise locally relevant insights needed for effective interventions, and create fragile measurement monocultures. gh.bmj.com/content/11/3...

The richness of urban health realities lost in measurement monocultures

The question seems simple enough: how can a rapidly growing African city improve the health and care of its pregnant women and their babies? But ask this question while navigating the humid, traffic-c...

gh.bmj.com