Global Development

CIGI's Development Program focuses on "global development," which emphasizes the importance of systemic coherence and shared responsibility for overcoming global and international challenges to equitable growth and sustainable development.

The overall goal of CIGI's Global Development program is to identify international governance innovations and adjustments that support sustainable development and poverty reduction, and facilitate the shift to more effective, efficient and equitable delivery of global public goods.

CIGI's research will develop options for supporting the reorganization of the global development system, to respond to significant changes in the global context.

The research will aim to build new multilateral consensus between the emerging donors (state and non-state) and traditional donors on concrete benefit-sharing arrangements and innovative financing of infrastructure development and connectivity, technology sharing and food security. Consideration will also be given to rethinking global development policy and priorities beyond the Millennium Development Goals post-2015.

The Africa Initiative is a multi-year, donor-supported program, with three components: a research program, an exchange program and an online portal. A joint undertaking by CIGI and SAIIA, the Africa Initiative aims to contribute in five thematic areas — conflict resolution, energy, food security, health and migration, with special attention to the crosscutting issue of climate change.
Researchers from CIGI and Wilfrid Laurier University, along with the International Migration Research Centre and Southern African Migration Programme, are examining and pushing the discussion on international understandings of diasporas and their role in global development.
Experts will be exploring how emerging powers like China and Brazil are using their newly found voices as active providers of development assistance.
Researchers are investigating the relationships among global governance, international organizations, and development aid practices in the context of assisting displaced populations.
In this Strategic Research Initiative project, researchers are confronting the inadequate frameworks and models used to think about food security in the context of the urban transition underway in the Global South.
A research network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts, led by Terry Mitchell and Ken Coates, is exploring the relationship and impact between indigenous peoples worldwide and global governance.
Researchers with this project will convene in spring 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa to consider the major governance challenges and opportunities for Sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century.
This project will convene high-level discussions to assess current international development mechanisms and advance policy options for the post-Millennium Development Goals governance paradigm. Undertaken in partnership with organizations from around the world, the project’s outputs will influence emerging policies and governance innovations in the development field.