Global public goods have benefits which go beyond the person or country that paid for them. For example, if a country invests in R&D for new scientific discoveries in health or agriculture, the benefits will be available to everyone, not just the country that paid for it. This characteristic of public goods means that there will usually be too little investment in them. A wide range of global public goods - from health R&D to preventing climate change - suffer from lack of investment. Wealthy co more...

By Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings

Executive Summary - Flows of official development assistance (ODA) to recipient countries have been highly volatile and this reduces their value. At the macro level, empirical evidence suggests that volatile ODA can negatively impact growth through several channels. At the micro level, volatility can affect fiscal planning and the level and composition of investment. This working paper develops a simple financial met more...

'Africa has a long history of migration. Persistent economic instability, fragile ecosystems, cyclical drought patterns, and civil wars and other types of conflict have propelled people from their countries of birth. Currently, more than 16 million Africans are classified as migrants, and their numbers are increasing. In particular, South Africa has the largest number of foreign-born persons (excluding irregular migrants).

Southern Africa has the highest rates of HIV-infection in the world. U more...

In this video blog, prepared for the G8 meeting in Japan (July 2008), Yasmeen Khwaja of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)argues for a renewed commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and offers a five point plan to deliver faster progress.

In this video blog, prepared for the G8 meeting in Japan (July 2008), Fletcher Tembo argues that Japan should take the lead to put aid practice on the international community's agenda. A review of aid practice, he argues, will be vital in confronting the challenges ahead for development, and Fletcher offers three areas where Japan's influence could be most useful.