Kevin Gallagher Advances Global Development Policy Through Three Key International Appointments
Professor Kevin P. Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, assumed three significant international leadership positions this year. As Director of BU’s Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center), he advances policy-relevant research for financial stability, human well-being, and environmental protection on a global scale, bridging academic scholarship with practical policy solutions.
The Brazilian Presidency to the Group of 20 (G20) appointed Gallagher as the Lead Expert on Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) Reform. As part of his appointment, Gallagher was commissioned to produce a report assessing MDB capital adequacy frameworks and the increase in lending necessary to achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement targets. The report, produced with a team of GDP Center researchers and independent experts, found that MDBs have made important strides toward increasing their lending headroom but that more ambition is needed to achieve development and climate goals in a timely and affordable manner. In June 2024, Gallagher traveled to Fortaleza, Brazil to present the findings to the G20’s International Financial Architecture Working Group. The final report served as an input to the ‘G20 Roadmap towards Better, Bigger, and more Effective MDBs.’
Concurrently, Gallagher serves on the Expert Review on Debt, Nature, and Climate, a joint initiative of the governments of Colombia, Kenya, France, and Germany. The Review analyzes the relationship between sovereign debt, environmental pressures, and climate change in developing economies. As part of the Independent Expert Group, which assembles specialists from developed and developing nations with diverse experience in debt, nature, and climate fields, Gallagher contributed to the interim report released this month, with comprehensive recommendations scheduled for spring 2025.
For the Club de Madrid’s 2024 Policy Dialogue “Driving Sustainable Futures for All,” he chairs a working group addressing financial institution reform and expanded financing. This non-partisan organization, comprising 126 former heads of state from 73 nations, includes seven Nobel Peace Prize recipients and 20 pioneering female heads of state or government.
Gallagher is also a member of the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an international consortium of experts utilizing rigorous, empirical research to advance a development-centered approach to climate change at the IMF. He serves as a co-chair to the Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery Project. His research concentrates on economic development, trade and investment policy, international environmental policy, and Latin American studies, advancing policy recommendations across topics like MDBs and climate change.
Prior appointments include co-chair of the T20 India Task Force on Clean Energy and Green Transition, member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy, and advisor to the U.S. Department of State’s Investment Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, among others. His academic career spans appointments at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, Tufts University’s Fletcher School, El Colegio de Mexico, Tsinghua University, and Argentina’s Center for State and Society.
Gallagher has authored seven books examining international economic systems. His recent publication, “The Case for New Bretton Woods,” co-authored with Richard Kozul-Wright, advances potential reforms to make the international financial architecture fit-for-purpose in the 21st century. Earlier works, including “The China Triangle” and “Ruling Capital,” examine China’s economic influence, cross-border finance, trade policy, and environmental economics.
An accomplished poet alongside his economics work, Gallagher’s newest collection, “And Yet it Moves” (MadHat, 2023), adds to earlier works “The Wild Goose” and “Loom.” His poetry appears in the Partisan Review and Harvard Review, and he edits spoKe, a Boston area annual of poetry and poetics.
For updates on his work and research, Professor Gallagher can be found on X @KevinPGallagher. Detailed information about his academic work is available through his Pardee School faculty profile.