By Brook Baker and Rachel Thrasher COVID-19 exploded on a global stage dominated by an international legal and policy regime that instantiates closed science, intellectual property (IP) monopolies and privatized control over the testing, supply, price and distribution of life-saving health technologies. As a result, there were avoidable delays in biopharmaceutical preparedness, ill-adapted technologies that […]
COVID-19 has been met by an international legal and policy regime of closed science, intellectual property monopolies and privatized control over the testing, supply, price and distribution of life-saving health technologies. Despite the remarkable effectiveness of the currently available vaccines, almost one-third of the world remains unvaccinated, allowing the pandemic to continue in many low- […]
By Yaechan Lee The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to be the focal institution in the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), which refers to a set of institutions and mechanisms that provide insurance against crises and financing to mitigate their impact. Yet, the IMF’s stringent conditionalities that were often perceived to ignore country-specificities, and the […]
The rise of regional financial arrangements (RFAs) over the last two decades has significantly reshaped the Global Financial Security Net (GFSN), which was previously almost the sole purview of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While the rise in regionally based financial resources has been widely noted, as have the challenges of coordinating IMF and RFA […]
By Amanda Brown On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery (DRGR) Project hosted the webinar launch of its new report, “Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery: Guaranteeing Sustainable Development.” The DRGR Project is a collaboration between the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and […]
The year 2023 offers political momentum for strengthening the global climate finance architecture under and outside the United Nations climate change regime. In November 2022, the 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP27) marked a breakthrough on loss and damage with an agreement for establishing new funding arrangements, including a fund. Parties also recognized […]
As the global economy faces increasing challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as interest rates continue to rapidly rise in the United States and across the Global North, emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) are facing a perfect storm of high inflation, increased borrowing costs and surging debt levels. Against this backdrop, […]
By Timon Forster On March 29, 2023, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, the Institute for Economic Development and the Department of Economics hosted its annual Paul Streeten Distinguished Lecture in Global Development Policy, which celebrates the legacy of BU Professor Paul Streeten as an eminent economist and interdisciplinary scholar of global development policy. […]
By Marilou Uy and Rishikesh Ram Bhandary The global transformation to achieve low-carbon and climate-resilient development poses macro-critical challenges for countries around the world. Countries need to accelerate the shift to low-carbon investments, build resilience to climate shocks, contend with loss and damage and navigate the cross-border impacts of the climate transition. Developing countries alone […]
In 2021, economic losses from natural catastrophes totaled $270 billion. Poor climate physical risk assessment limits adaptation finance, which is still lagging behind mitigation finance in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), but also high-income countries. A new policy brief published by the European Capital Markets Institute and authored by Irene Monasterolo, Kevin P. Gallagher, […]