By Rachel Thrasher and Özlem Ömer As a recent policy brief by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center shows, more must be done to ensure a rapid, equitable and global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine rollout is underway in every region of the world. 500 million doses have been given worldwide, with almost 100 […]
By Luma Ramos Amid the worst global recession since World War II, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2021 Spring Meetings debated the importance of incorporating green policies into the economic recovery. In her opening speech, the Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva noted that the IMF has a strategic role to play in mitigating climate change, […]
By Sarah Sklar While China’s economic performance has been remarkable since reform and opening in the late 1970s, real GDP growth slowed down in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and never recovered its pace. In a recent presentation as part of the Spring 2021 Global China Research Colloquium, Marialuz Moreno Badia, Deputy Chief […]
Despite widespread availability of HIV treatment, patient outcomes differ across facilities. In a new study by PLOS Medicine, Jacob Bor and coauthors proposed and evaluated an approach to measure quality of HIV care at health facilities in South Africa’s national HIV program using routine laboratory data. They analyzed data from 3,265 facilities with a median annual […]
By Rebecca Ray Austerity – tightening government budgets during an economic downturn – has long been discredited as a recovery strategy. Instead of economic growth, it can lead to lower social spending, hurting the poor at the most difficult time and raising inequality thereafter. Furthermore, it can prolong economic downturns, dooming countries to downward cycles instead of recovery, […]
By Xinyue Ma As countries strive to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is in urgent need of liquidity to fill the investment gap in development areas such as public health, climate change, and inequality. In the midst of this, economic risks around the world are straining the so-called Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), […]
By Henrik Selin and Rebecca Dunn If international shipping were a country, it would be the world’s seventh largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. Despite this, CO2 emissions from international shipping are not currently covered by international treaties or domestic policies. This means that these CO2 emissions are largely left outside collective efforts […]
By Kevin Acker Chinese loans have become an important source of infrastructure finance for African countries over the past two decades, with Chinese financiers committing approximately $153 billion to African governments and state-owned enterprises between 2000 and 2019. The COVID-19 crisis has introduced new challenges to African borrowers and Chinese financiers, as borrowers negotiate debt […]
As part of the Human Capital Initiative Speaker Series for Spring 2021, Dr. Erez Yoeli, Research Scientist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, will present on findings from research conducted in Kenya on promoting tuberculosis treatment completion. STARTS: 4:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 12, 2020 ENDS: 5:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 12, 2020 […]
International ships carry roughly 90 percent of global trade by volume and produce more CO2 emissions annually than Saudi Arabia, at two percent of of global emissions. Despite this, neither international treaties nor domestic policies control CO2 emissions from international maritime shipping. The industry also does not lend itself to easy governance, as it is […]