Center for Global Development : About CGD

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href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/content/email_page/">Email this Page</a>  </div> <div id="breadcrumb"><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/"> Home</a> > </div> <h1 id="content-title"> About CGD </h1>  <div id="content-main"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"> <div class="content-full"> <p>The Center for Global Development is an independent, nonprofit policy research organization that is dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality and to making globalization work for the poor. Through a combination of research and strategic outreach, the Center actively engages policymakers and the public to influence the policies of the United States, other rich countries, and such institutions as the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization to improve the economic and social development prospects in poor countries. CGD was recently ranked among the world’s top think tanks (number 15 out of several thousand such research organizations) in an independent survey-based ranking published in Foreign Policy magazine.</p> <h3>Where We Came From</h3> <p>CGD was founded in November 2001 by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/about/board/scott/">Edward W. Scott, Jr.</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.petersoninstitute.org/staff/author_bio.cfm?author_id=33">C. Fred Bergsten</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/content/expert/detail/483/">Nancy Birdsall</a>. A technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former senior U.S. government official, Ed provided the vision and a significant financial committment that made the creation of the Center possible. Fred, the director of the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.petersoninstitute.org/">Peterson Institute for International Economics</a>, lent his formidable reputation in academic and policy circles as well as providing the fledgling Center with a roof and logistical support within the Peterson Institute for its initial months of operation. Nancy, a former head of the World Bank research department and executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, became CGD’s first president. Her intellectual leadership and the rare combination of being both hard-headed and soft-hearted about development attracted a cadre of researchers and other professionals who are deeply dedicated to CGD’s mission.</p> <p>CGD’s three founders perceived a growing need for independent research to generate practical, creative solutions to the challenges that global interdependence poses to the developing countries, starting with debt. <a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/2922"><em>Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture</em></a> (CGD, 2004), by Birdsall and John Williamson, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, was the Center’s first book.</p> <h3>What We Do</h3> <p>Today CGD conducts research and analysis on a wide range of <a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/">topics</a> related to how rich country policies impact people in the developing world. These include:</p> <ul> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/aid_effectiveness">Aid Effectiveness</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/education">Education</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/globalization">Globalization</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/health">Health</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/migration">Migration</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/trade">Trade</a></li> </ul> <p>Research and analysis that is related to proposals for specific, practical improvements in rich country policies is organized into <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/">initiatives</a>, such as:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/pbaedu">Cash on Delivery: Progress-Based Aid for Education</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/climatechange">Confronting Climate Change</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/demographicsanddevelopment">Demographics and Development in the 21st Century</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/ghprn">The Global Health Policy Research Network</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/hivmonitor">The HIV/AIDS Monitor</a></li> </ul> <p>Our <a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/cdi">Commitment to Development Index</a>, conceived in partnership with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/"><em>Foreign Policy Magazine</em></a>, quantifies the full range of rich country policies that have an impact on poor people in developing countries. The Index’s annual rankings have become a tool for discussions not only of aid, debt and trade, but of environmental, security, and immigration policies.</p> <p>In the short time since its founding, CGD has rapidly earned a reputation as a unique "think and do" tank, where independent research is channeled into practical policy proposals that help to shape decisions in Washington and other rich country capitals.</p> <p>The Center's research and analysis have contributed to a growing recognition of the need for deeper and faster debt relief, and for more and better quality development assistance. Our trade policy research captured the world’s attention, with the oft-cited finding that liberalization could liberate from poverty 500 million people.</p> <p>We have put on the global agenda proposals to use the market to develop a malaria vaccine; to allow more temporary labor migration; to sell IMF gold to write down poor countries’ debt; to give the World Bank a strong mandate for addressing global warming; and to create a club for independent evaluation of development investments.</p> <p>Some proposals have already been taken up and are making a difference. Others remind us of how much more remains to be done.</p> <p>For a quick overview of CGD <a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/doc/about/CGD_Brochure.pdf">download our brochure</a> (PDF, 676KB)</p> <h3>Video: Who We Are And What We Do</h3> <p><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20091001065724oe_/http://www.youtube.com/v/Bsxgsgmz4Z8" width="425" height="355" wmode="transparent" scale="ShowAll" loop="loop" menu="menu" quality="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></p> <p><a href="/web/20091001065724/http://www.cgdev.org/content/multimedia/">See more of our videos</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <div id="footer"> <p style="float: right; width: 400px; text-align: right;">1800 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Third Floor, Washington DC 20036<br/>Tel 202.416.4000 | Fax 202.416.4050</p> <p>© 2009 Center for Global Development.<p> <div class="clear-fix"></div> </div>  </div>  <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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Center for Global Development : About CGD