GDN CORE Activities

GDN sponsors five core activities that reflect its strategic objectives.

Regional Research Competitions (RRCs)
Held every year by GDN’s regional network partners, these unique competitions promote high-quality research in developing and transition countries. GDN has disbursed over $21 million through more than 1,150 grants through this program.

Global Development Awards and Medals Competitions (GDAs)
The largest annual international competition for researchers on development, each year roughly $250,000 is awarded in grants to researchers and development practitioners from developing countries. Nearly 5,900 scholars representing more than 100 countries have participated in this competition to date. Over the years, several governments, multilateral institutions and private corporations have joined the Government of Japan in supporting the annual awards competitions.

Global Research Projects (GRPs)
Major projects involving researching teams worldwide address the most pressing issues of development. To date, six projects have been implemented within the comparative, cross country context- Development on the Move: Measuring and Optimizing Migration’s Economic and Social Impacts; Promoting Innovative Programs from the Developing World: Towards Realizing the Heath MDGs in Africa and Asia; Impact of Rich Countries’ Policies on Poverty; Bridging Research and Policy; Understanding Reform; and Explaining Growth. GDN has launched its seventh project on Varieties of Governance: Effective Public Service Delivery and is currently developing projects on the Climate Challenge: Sustaining Development Progress in a Warming World and Urbanization in Developing Countries: A Way Forward for Inclusive Development. The nearly 300 grants awarded under the GRPs include country studies, thematic papers, regional syntheses, and global studies.

Annual Global Development Conferences
GDN’s annual conferences provide promising researchers from developing countries an opportunity to showcase their research in an international forum and benefit from interaction with world renowned academics and policy makers, including Nobel Laureates and heads of state. Of the 5,000 participants from over 100 countries who have attended GDN’s ten annual conferences since 1999, nearly 3,200 were researchers from developing world.

GDNet: The Electronic Voice of GDN
GDN’s internet-based resource, GDNet is rapidly emerging as the primary depository of research output from the developing and transition world with 15,000 research papers available online. In addition, GDNet provides developing country researchers with online access to sophisticated research tools. The monthly newsletters GDNews and Research in Focus reach nearly 30,000 subscribers.

Emerging Activities

• Policy Outreach.
• Institutional Capacity Building.
• Research Skills Training.
• Strategic Research Partnership.

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