By Tim Hirschel-Burns This blog is part of a blog series on past large-scale international investment programs and the lessons they provide for the investment push needed for development and climate action today. You can read the introduction to the blog series here. The Marshall Plan has become the definitive reference point for ambitious international […]
By Rebecca Ray In 2024, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) had a record trade deficit with China, amounting to 1.4 percent of regional GDP. At the same time, the region’s exports to China re showing signs of shifting down the value chain, as the top five LAC-China exports are now raw materials with no […]
By Daniel Titelman As temperatures in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) heat up, economies in the region are cooling down. In August 2025, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) released a new edition of its Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2025, finding that LAC faces […]
In 2024, China’s relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continued to grow, especially in the emerging sectors of renewable energy, energy transition minerals and electric mobility. However, lower-technology sectors such as agriculture and mining continued to dominate trade and are likely to continue their prominent role in trans-Pacific relations. Rebecca Ray and Enrique […]
By Yan Wang As the deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) draws near, the world economy faces headwinds from trade protections, supply-chain disruptions and shrinking development assistance. According to the OECD, official development assistance (ODA) from member countries declined by 7.1% in 2024. Against this backdrop, finding workable solutions to a polycrisis […]
With five years to go before the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline, official statements have stressed that only 18 percent of the targets are on track, and many are going in reverse. International development community and policymakers around the world are struggling to find approaches that help to combat climate change and other challenges. Chinese […]
By Tim Hirschel-Burns Political winds may have shifted in some major powers, but reality has not: a global investment push is needed. Only 18 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track, setting the world on a course for low growth, instability and the mass waste of human potential. Last year was the […]
By Rishikesh Ram Bhandary and Tim Hirschel-Burns As negotiations at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil go down to the wire, one of the key topics awaiting resolution is adaptation finance. Adaptation finance is geared towards helping countries address the impacts of climate change. It can include measures ranging from […]
By Yiyuan Qi and William Olichney As China’s overseas financing activities expand across the globe, the need for reliable, detailed and publicly accessible data has grown as well. Researchers, policymakers, civil society and journalists increasingly rely on third-party databases to understand the scale, nature and impact of China’s global lending. A small group of independent […]
By Angeline Mumararungu During my 2025 Summer in the Field Fellowship, I had the opportunity to pursue a research project exploring the effectiveness of equity-based incentives within the performance-based financing (PBF) model to enhance maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes in Rwanda. Partnering with the Ministry of Health, my goal was to understand how these […]