In The News

Let Colombia End Its Civil War

Washington Office on Latin America June 5, 2014
The illicit drug trade in Colombia has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced millions, even though the United States has spent $9 billion since 2000, mostly on security. The government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are engaged in peace talks in Cuba and have signed a preliminary accord: “The agreement offers a viable plan for the FARC to end its involvement in the...

Timor-Leste: Lessons of a Failing State?

Loro Horta May 22, 2014
Timor-Leste shares the island of Timor and a bloody history with Indonesia. The former Portuguese colony was part of Indonesia from 1976 until 2002, when it was declared an independent state. The country’s small population is less than half of 1 percent of that in neighboring Indonesia, and one quarter died in fighting for independence. Despite great natural resources, the country has since...

Profitable Development Solutions: How the Private Sector Can Contribute to the Post-2015 Agenda

Laurence Chandy, Kemal Derviş, George Ingram, Homi Kharas and Steven Rocker May 1, 2014
The United Nations posed eight millennium goals, including elimination of extreme poverty. Progress has been made, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a meeting in August 2013 to analyze how to achieve that goal by 2030. The Brookings Institution offers a special report on the meeting with focus on better coordination of private and public funding for development aid: “the developing...

Ebola Virus Continues to Rage in West Africa

April 14, 2014
Ebola is a highly contagious virus without a preventive vaccine or cure. The disease emerged in Guinea in February, then spread to Liberia, with 200 cases in this first outbreak reported for West Africa. “So far, Ebola outbreaks have only been recorded in Central Africa, such as in Sudan, Congo or Uganda,” reports Deutsche Welle. “According to the World Health Organization, there have been 15...

Rethinking Foreign Aid

Paul Farmer December 25, 2013
Aid is in desperate need, and distribution could be more efficient to produce sustainable results. Writing for Foreign Affairs, Paul Farmer, professor at Harvard University, points out that “80 percent of aid from major bilateral and multilateral donors to fragile countries still bypasses the systems of local public institutions” but improving lives depends on long-term improvements to public...

US Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels

Michael R. Gordon, Mark Landler, Anne Barnard December 13, 2013
US aid for Syrian over the past two years has been limited and non-lethal, but the Obama administration has temporarily stopped that, too, after a group of Islamist fighters stormed warehouses containing US equipment. The US is not keen on extending military aid for rebels that could fall in the Islamists hand or see them rise to power in a transitional government. Identifying moderates amid...

Global Experts Still Need Local Knowledge

Pranab Bardhan December 12, 2013
Many professions have gone global, as leading researchers hunt for global patterns, develop global indices and make global pronouncements. Economist Pranab Bardhan analyzes this trend in the field of economic development, and points out, “With the advance of such ‘global practices’ what gets short shrift is the old-fashioned in-depth study into the historical-institutional contexts of particular...