A 21st Century Approach to Development
Speaker: Joshua Kaufman, Director, Office of Evaluation & Impact Assessment, USAID US Global Development Lab
Today, the global development landscape is facing unprecedented, accelerated change. Driven by historic shifts in capital flows, technological breakthroughs, a new culture of innovation and social entrepreneurship, and massive acceleration of connectivity, this change presents tremendous opportunity to help the seven hundred million people who still live on less than $1.90 a day lift themselves out of extreme poverty. However, this opportunity can only be realized if traditional development organizations are willing to embrace radically new approaches to how we do business.
The U.S. Global Development Lab, established in April 2014, builds on USAID’s 50 years of experience by applying science, technology, innovation, and partnerships to accelerate impact in response to global development challenges. The Lab’s focus is twofold:
- To produce breakthrough development innovations by sourcing, testing, and scaling proven solutions to reach hundreds of millions of people
- To accelerate the transformation of the development enterprise by opening development to people everywhere with good ideas, promoting new and deepening existing partnerships, bringing data and evidence to bear, and harnessing scientific and technological advances.