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"AI is killing the cheap smartphone - The sub-$100 smartphone risks becoming “permanently uneconomical”" substack.com/home/post/p...

Maybe the school phone ban worked in Brazil? (though the matching seems to be doing a lot of work here)

Great interview with the excellent Jenna Forsyth by the excellent Hugo Smith leadbatteries.substack.com/p/jenna-for...

The last piece of the first issue of In Development is out! There are 7.7 million people with opioid use disorder in India. Only 45,000 of them are receiving evidence-based treatment. Akshay Narayanan explains how this happened. indevelopmentmag.substack.com/p/cheap-drug...

Now out in Environmental Pollution! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New @cgdev.org paper! What can you actually do about lead poisoning? Nutritional supplements probably help a bit, are very cheap, but far from solve the problem. Paper: www.cgdev.org/publication/... Blog: www.cgdev.org/blog/can-nut...

Detectan plomo en sangre de 329 niños en Nuevo León www.adn40.mx/mexico/2026...

Next week is the UK Global Partnerships Conference in London www.cgdev.org/blog/what-a... Of course everyone knows the side-events are the best events. Join us to hear about the latest evidence on keeping children safe in school! www.cgdev.org/event/keepi...

"Sherwin Williams, the largest global United States-based paint company, continues to sell lead paints in Mexico." academic.oup.com/annweh/arti...

➡️ Our panel now online: "The Science of Scale and Implementation: New Frontiers for Research" @oxfordcsae.bsky.social conference @deankarlan.bsky.social @gamblingondev.bsky.social @wwhglobaled.bsky.social @blavatnikschool.bsky.social @youthimpactorg.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-5H...

Failed legal challenges have delayed major infrastructure projects like new roads and power stations by a collective 32 years. Labour recently changed the law to cut the time it takes to throw out anti-infrastructure lawsuits. And it's working. www.samdumitriu.com/p/the-planni...

Africa's population living in refugee camps has tripled in the last 15 years colettesalemi.ca/files/ARCD_...

How much do we trust people’s texts as their revealed preferences? This paper is revolutionary to social sciences and everyone should pay attention to it.

The Independent covers @CGDev.org research on lead exposure risks from solar energy by Caroline Mallory & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social www.independent.co.uk/news/south-a...

There's lead in those toys. In 10-40% those in LMICs. New @CGDev blog from Caroline Mallory and @mariajot.bsky.social www.cgdev.org/blog/cheap-t...

We've launched In Development! It is aiming to be the New Yorker for global development. We want to promote discourse on development without dogma - stories doing deep-dives into pressing development issues, backed up by evidence, argument, and experience. Subscribe here: indevelopmentmag.com

"Women Can Travel Past the Moon, but Senior IFI Leadership Remains Largely Out of Reach" www.cgdev.org/blog/women-c...

We have a great event on education tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/15) at @cgdev.org. We'll hear from government ministers from Zambia, Sierra Leone, and Grenada, plus the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education. (I'm even sharing some evidence.) Register here cgdev.org/event/sustai...

Absolutely remarkable statement from Pope Leo today. One for the history books www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Ahead of the #WBGSpringMeetings, what are the hard questions shaping global development? Join CGD and @devex.com#WBGSpringMeetingsfor a candid look at what to watch from the economic fallout of the Iran war to the future of MDBs in a shrinking aid landscape. Register today 👉 https://go.cgdev.org/4cuXNIj

The Iran war oil shock will hit the hungry hardest. The same food price increase can mean 3× larger income losses for the poorest households. @leecrawfurd.bsky.social and @eeshani.bsky.social on why cash should be part of the response. https://go.cgdev.org/47KhM36

"New research from the Center for Global Development shows the clear link between aid cuts and conflict. Within the last year, conflict and conflict-related deaths have risen 5%. Part of the solution must be to restore aid cuts" time.com/article/2026...

Making a good case for "humanitarian" targeted cash transfers given the war's effects on food prices: www.cgdev.org/blog/when-oi... @eeshani.bsky.social @leecrawfurd.bsky.social

Bizarre that the amidst brutal cuts to foreign aid the British government is INCREASING aid for overseas territories www.cgdev.org/blog/big-inc...

"the field of aid advocacy is neglected; I estimate that only $1-2 is spent on advocacy for every $1,000 of Official Development Assistance disbursed" forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hPKBAp...

The Iran War Oil Shock Will Hit the Hungry Hardest—Cash Should Be Part of the Response (new @cgdev.org blog with @eeshani.bsky.social) www.cgdev.org/blog/when-oi...

Can test results lead to education reform? @alenestour.bsky.social and @leecrawfurd.bsky.social show how PASEC results have improved learning in Francophone Africa. At a few cents per child, the question is not cost but whether countries can afford to lose it. cgdev.org/blog/pisa-shocks-africa

"Even under conservative assumptions, PASEC's benefits exceed its costs by a comfortable margin. Counting just one successful reform in one country per decade with a very conservative learning improvement, yields a benefit-cost ratio of around 31:1." www.cgdev.org/blog/pisa-sh...

Proof that descriptive results matter!!

Govts can be embarrassed into educ reforms; national assessments of learning are not enough. www.cgdev.org/blog/pisa-sh... Thanks @leecrawfurd.bsky.social and Alexis de Nestour; attn @davidevans66.bsky.social @cgdev.org

You might have heard of "PISA-shock". You probably haven't heard of "PASEC-shock" in Niger [new blog with @alenestour.bsky.social]

"In 2010, China accounted for less than 8% of global clinical trials; by 2020, it had surpassed the US" marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...

Think this is the first time my research made it to instagram? www.instagram.com/reels/DV3Wuo...

The UK is considering scrapping the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. But it plays a key role in scrutinizing aid and strengthening accountability. @leecrawfurd.bsky.social and @ianmitchell1.bsky.social propose 5 reforms to improve its value: https://go.cgdev.org/4toR09E

With Tinubu in London this week, I'd just like to say thank you to the Nigerian state for paying to train the thousands of Nigerian doctors & nurses working in the UK. Probably on the order of a £1bn subsidy for the NHS

Glad to see this is out in @nber.org WP series and since my excellent co-author @chinemeluokafor.bsky.social and I have been discussing the results for the past few weeks, here's an old-fashioned paper thread on why protests matter/can work to influence economic redistribution 1/n

New blog: How Foreign-Trained Health Workers Saved the NHS £14 Billion www.cgdev.org/blog/how-for...

Some of the biggest unsung heroes are public officials in developing countries who do the right thing even at gunpoint. open.substack.com/pub/alltrade...

Los recortes de ayuda de EE  UU alimentan los conflictos en África elpais.com/planeta-futu...

We know unsafe recycling of car batteries exposes people to lead—but how much does it contribute globally? A new paper from Theo Mitchell & @leecrawfurd.bsky.social shows that it could drive a third of all lead exposure in LMICs: https://go.cgdev.org/49Z9wMR

Cool post by Euan Ritchie on how ICAI is viewed from FCDO, according to new analysis of 2,591 business cases www.cgdev.org/blog/how-uk-...

It is inherent in any 'red list' proposals for countries (whether longterm or negotiating tactic) that they treat individuals as a means to an end, discriminating via [national] group characteristics. Exempting Chevening scholars would be a small mitigation www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This week: I read No Second Chances by @morganj0nes.bsky.social Also an old lecture on Weber's relevance to modern politicians by @iprnickp.bsky.social And a piece about aid cuts and violence by @leecrawfurd.bsky.social aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/readwatche...

RIP India's IT outsourcing industry? www.ft.com/content/a522...

Great piece by @aveek18.bsky.social in the FT: "On lead, Britain is the laggard of the developed world" www.ft.com/content/bbd5...

The Nazis stopped Jewish doctors from practising, so thousands of them left the country (my great grandfather was one of them). So many left that this was a good natural experiment for estimating the causal effect of losing doctors on infant mortality (& thousands died)

Earlier this month, the @cgdev.org hosted a research workshop on the topic of school-related violence. Here is a round-up of every research paper we saw. www.cgdev.org/blog/what-ar... If you want more, you can watch videos of the conference here. www.cgdev.org/event/call-p...

Uber reduced traffic fatalities by 5%?!! direct.mit.edu/rest/article...

“the largest act of mass murder of this decade, and of this century so far, was not perpetrated by militaries or militias, but by the world's richest man in Washington D.C.'s Eisenhower Executive Office Building.” @mckay4senate.bsky.social www.liberalcurrents.com/what-elon-ha...