Welcome, UN delegates to New York — please don’t waste our money! Bjorn Lomborg writes an essay for the New York Post to mark the start of the UN General Assembly. Read the full oped Welcome, UN delegates to New Yor...

Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg write: Let's acknowledge that the need is greater than the available funding, which means we need to focus on the efforts that will have the most impact. With these principles in mind, w...

We also need to conduct a more mature conversation about how to better help the 4-billion people who live in the poorer half of the world, write Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg. Read the entire oped Let’s make the...

Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg write: The world is falling short on Global Goals, with a massive funding shortfall. Donors must meet commitments and identify the best investments for the most impact. Read the full ope...

Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg writes: This year is the midpoint between the start of the goals, in 2016, and 2030, when they are supposed to be accomplished—and while the goals have done a great deal of good, the wor...

Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg write: The Global Goals are too much of a good thing. The 17 commitments are accompanied by a huge number of targets, 169, to be exact. Having so many targets wouldn't necessarily be an ...

Japan had 6-in-10 children undernourished in 1900. It reached very low levels by 2000. China achieved massive drops in malnutrition in the last 20 years, while other developing countries - like India, Ethiopia and t...

We need to shift from empty rhetoric and trillion-dollar promises to real, efficient, billion-dollar action. It is time to focus our attention where it matters most. Read the full oped in Halftime But Nowhere Near H...

...there is no way we will deliver on all of them in time. There is no way we will deliver on all these promises in time. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is now implausibly calling for a $500 billion annual SD...

We have promised everything to everyone, as a consequence we do not reach the promised goals e.g. improved health for the entire world's population.

Of 500 million primary school children, almost 80 per cent are not learning minimal reading and maths skills.

Enabling more skilled migration to countries that need more skilled labor could achieve both higher productivity and less inequality. And surveys tend to suggest it’s more politically viable, as skilled migration is...

The Do-Able Dozen: Every dollar spent on these two educational initiatives worldwide would deliver $65 of social benefits.

Improving the futures of children is indeed a no-brainer. Considering our scarce resources, we should prioritise spending $10 billion on proven, effective approaches and deliver on the most important education pledg...

One thing that taxpayers and politicians agree on practically everywhere is that more money should be spent on children’s education.

If politicians were truly serious about ending global inequality, many economists would say there is one obvious policy: Allow greater global migration.

The Do-Able Dozen: Opening the entire world to migration could increase global GDP massively.

Studies routinely suggest that opening the entire world to migration could increase global gross domestic product by a massive 50 to 150 percent. Of course, it would also involve more than two billion workers moving...

The Do-Able Dozen: Just a 10 percentage-point increase in the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets could save 1.3 million lives by the end of this decade.

Most people think of malaria as a problem faced only by humid, hot countries. But just over a century ago, the disease thrived as far north as Siberia and the Arctic Circle, and was endemic in 36 states of the US.

Ensuring people sleep under an insecticide-treated bednet is one of the most effective way to prevent malaria. Mosquitoes are blocked by the netting and killed by the insecticide.

Renowned author Dr Bjorn Lomborg discusses solutions to the mosquito-borne disease that has long been plaguing Africa in the latest instalment of a series exclusive to Dhaka Tribune.

We urgently need to focus on investing in the very best solutions. Improving urban tenure security, which at low costs would make hundreds of millions of people better off, is one such investment. 

In February Ralph Nordjo presented the Halftime research project for economists at UNECA. Specifically, was discussed how cost-benefit analysis can be an effective tool to help governments prioritize between differe...

Poor countries continue to fight against diseases such as tuberculosis, but we must also focus on diseases linked to tobacco, alcohol and salt.

For the majority of people in developing countries, secure property rights are a rare luxury. That could be changed.

Most people in the developed world don’t have to worry about losing the right to live where they do. If you have a deed or a rental contract, it is unlikely that someone is going to turn up tomorrow with their own p...

Improving urban tenure security would make hundrends of millions of people better off. Renowned author Dr Bjorn Lomborg discusses the intricacies of land rights in the latest instalment of a series exclusive to Dhak...

The deaths of thousands of women and infants annually could be avoided for a surprisingly small cost. Multi-micronutrient supplements could prevent about seven per cent of almost 700,000 still-births, 21 per cent of...

Over the course of the 20th Century, tobacco smoking killed around 100 million people, most of whom lived in today’s rich countries. However, that picture is changing, and the health burdens of smoking are now movin...

Addressing chronic disease risks in poor countries would make a huge difference to our world.

NCDs are claiming more lives everywhere while receiving a fraction of health funding.

We measure chronic malnutrition in stunting; children are so underfed that they are much shorter than their peers of the same age. Stunting decreases children's survival chances, with 2.7 million globally dying year...

Opposition to trade also means dismissing the fantastic opportunities that trade brings to the poorer half of the world.

Meeting was held with about a 15 member team of the NPC which was chaired by the Commissioner General, Batho Christopher Molomo. Ralph Nordjo and Saleema Razvi travelled to Gaborone to discuss the way forward follow...

If we grow global trade by a mere five per cent, the benefits to mankind will be $11 trillion. In this eighth instalment of The Do-able Dozen: Development projects for 2030 and beyond, Bjorn Lomborg explains how fre...

Over the past century, trade had been increasing as a percentage of the entire global economy, but this peaked around the Global Financial Crisis, and is now declining. This is true for Ghana as well, where the shar...

Supporting free trade is out of fashion. In rich countries, it has been blamed for job losses and all but abandoned by policymakers.

Following the work on rapidly assessing Eswatini's National Development Strategy in collaboration with Dr. Thabo Sacolo and his team at the Eswatini Economic Policy Analysis and Research Centre (ESEPARC), Saleema Ra...

The National Planning Commission of Namibia invited Ralph Nordjo to discuss the possibility to collaborate on cost-benefit analyses within the Halftime project framework. The meeting with Mr. Sylvester Mbangu (Deput...

Of all our global promises for development that we are on track to fail by 2030 and there are many one of the most tragic and infuriating is our limited progress on ending global malnutrition.

Every two minutes, nine newborn babies and one mother die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. In total this year 2.4 million newborn babies will die within the first month of their lives and 295,...

Investing more in pregnant mothers’ nutritional support turns out to be one of the most efficient ways to make progress on sustainable development. We owe it to the world to invest in such smart policies first.

The infectious disease that killed the most people last year is one we’ve heard almost nothing about: tuberculosis. In 2022, it likely claimed 1.4 million lives, more than the total toll of COVID. And yet, in rich c...

A dramatic reduction in tuberculosis is not only possible but would be one of the most effective priorities leading up to 2030

Bjorn Lomborg presented the 12 best investments with incredible social returns, and discussed why well-meaning companies and consumers shouldn't chose ESG-solutions that just do a little good per dollar or Norwegian...

Investment in maternal and newborn health can deliver astonishing returns to society, saving lives and delivering an astounding $87 of social benefits back for every dollar spent.

Corruption has been a pervasive, persistent issue plaguing governments worldwide. It is a menace that drains billions of dollars from economies, stifles growth, undermines public trust and exacerbates poverty. Despi...

Corruption is an enormous global challenge, likely costing more than $1 trillion annually or $120 for every person. World leaders have long promised to tamp down on corruption. Unfortunately, we’re getting nowhere. 

VACCINATION is one of the true wonders of humanity, having saved more lives than any other medical invention and providing population-level control of diseases that once ran rampant.

The financial cost of this global tragedy can be as harrowing as the unbearable emotional pain.

The death toll of mothers and young infants in the world’s poorest countries is an unacceptable and largely avoidable tragedy. Investing just $3.7 billion annually in BEmONC and family planning is not only low cost,...

Corruption is a trillion-dollar problem globally each year, with very few answers. Over the past decade, we have made zero progress towards fighting it, despite the UN setting the target to end corruption in its sig...

One of humanity’s biggest achievements in the last century was making a huge increase in food production. Read the second part of the 12-piece series in Daily Graphic.

Today, vaccines have made common diseases like diphtheria, typhoid, measles and whooping cough virtually extinct.

Research shows that a 1% increase in agricultural value added per hectare can bring about a quick 0.4% drop in poverty and a long-term 1.9% decrease, achieved through a combination of lower food costs and increased ...

Unfortunately recession, inflation, and many other global challenges caused us to lose focus on the huge potential that vaccines offer.

Of all the hundreds of promises that the world has made in the SDGs, most of which will never be delivered, a few stand out for their incredible effectiveness. Increased vaccination is clearly one of these policies....

Global dithering has allowed tuberculosis to become the biggest infectious killer. Ending tuberculosis is one of the world’s most effective policies. We have promised way too much for 2030, but tackling tuberculosis...

A new research paper for Copenhagen Consensus shows that a modest investment of $5.5 billion annually (less even than Americans spend on ice cream every year) could go a long way and free 133 million people from hun...

One of humanity’s biggest achievements in the last century was making a huge increase in food production. From 1900 to 2000, there was a six-fold increase in crop harvests while the global population increased less ...

The SDGs do promise to do incredibly important things, like eradicating poverty and hunger, getting rid of disease, ending war and global warming. They also set targets for more peripheral issues like providing gree...

The international community must set clear priorities and not try to do everything at once. Bjorn Lomborg kicks off a 12-part weekly series in which he and his colleagues at the Copenhagen Consensus think tank set a...

Over that decade-and-a-half, governments, international institutions and private foundations poured in billions of dollars more than they had before, specifically to achieve the 15 targets. Bjorn Lomborg kicks off a...

Ralph Nordjo discussed the Halftime cost-benefit research and how the methodology can help to achieve goals within Agenda 2063 more cost-effectively with Mr. Jacques Mukwende, Ag. Director of Partnership.

Between 2000 and 2015 the world made great progress on the Millennium Development Goals, which aimed to hit important targets in education, income growth, fighting disease and so on. In 2015, world leaders followed ...

Meetings were held with Mr. Abdelkreem Y. Ezaldin, Office of the Strategic Planning and Delivery (OSPD). Ralph Nordjo introduced the Halftime cost-benefit research project, and they discussed how the results can hel...

Ralph Nordjo travelled to Addis Ababa for informal meetings to introduce and present the Halftime cost-benefit research project for delegates at the annual African Union Summit.

In the year 2000, something remarkable happened. The world came together and committed to a short list of ambitious targets that became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The objectives, which include...

Despite great progress over the past decades, more than 800 million people still go without enough food. Careful economic research helps identify ingenious and effective solutions. Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson ...

If we want to save our planet, we'd better start with smart solutions for global poverty and poor education. Bjorn Lomborg writes together with Jordan Petersson in the Australian introducing the Halftime for the SDG...

It is therefore long past time to identify and prioritise our most crucial goals. The think tank Copenhagen Consensus, together with several Nobel laureates and more than a hundred leading economists, has done exact...

It is prudent for a world facing too many demands with too few resources to focus on the most effective public policies first.   The world will be able to achieve its SDG 2030 promises only by 2078. While there are ...

Meeting in Addis Ababa with the Minister of State at the Ministry of Planning and Development, Hon. Tirumar Abate Ayalew. Ralph Nordjo and Saleema Razvi of the Copenhagen Consensus Center discussed the possibilties ...

Memorandum of Understanding for assisting the government with cost-benefit assessment with the aim of identifying interventions and policies most likely to deliver high social return for the Kingdom of Tonga. Signat...

Editorial published in The Punch, one of Nigeria's biggest newspapers. In every country, the main role of the government and parliament is to prioritise policy options and investments. Hopefully, these policies will...

In collaboration with the National Planning Authority a traffic-light analysis of the budget strategy has been finalized as input for the budget discusssion. Interventions with high social and economic returns per S...