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About CID
The Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University is a university-wide center that works to advance the understanding of development challenges and offer viable solutions to problems of global poverty. The CID is Harvard’s leading research hub focusing on resolving the dilemmas of public policy associated with generating stable, shared, and sustainable prosperity in developing countries. Our ongoing mission is to apply knowledge to and revolutionize the world of development practice.
The CID's primary activities and programs seek to:
- Change the way in which growth strategies are conceived, designed, and implemented
- Reinvent development policy to facilitate countries’ move to higher productivity activities
- Extend markets to the underserved and empower the disenfranchised
- Improve service delivery in education, health, and other social services
- Design institutions, policies and practices that promote sustainable development which meet human needs while conserving the earth’s life support systems
In order to effectively address the world’s most intractable problems, the CID seeks to bridge the gaps between disciplines. By convening Harvard’s leading experts and engaging colleagues throughout the world, CID pursues the science of explaining the sources of and remedies for entrenched global poverty and the political and environmental circumstances that surround it. As a University-wide research center, CID draws upon faculty, staff, and researchers from the Kennedy School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the School of Public Health, the Medical School, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Design, the Law School, and the Business School. Though housed at the Kennedy School, connections with all of these schools positions the CID to engage directly with governments and to access policy makers to effect good policy decisions and increase prosperity in all regions of the globe.
The leadership of CID recognizes that solutions to global challenges are possible, but will require breakthroughs in approaches at the cutting edge of the hard sciences, the social sciences, ethics and politics. Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School, became the Director of CID on October 12, 2005. CID also has a faculty Steering Committee, including Philippe Aghion (Department of Economics), William C. Clark (Kennedy School), Merilee Grindle (Kennedy School), Michael R. Kremer (Department of Economics), Sendhil Mullainathan (Department of Economics), Rohini Pande (Kennedy School), Lant Pritchett (Kennedy School), James Robinson (Department of Government), and Dani Rodrik (Kennedy School).
Harvard’s students of international development will be future policy leaders of the world. Through both graduate and undergraduate fellowships, as well as close ties to the Master’s of Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) at the Kennedy School, CID is investing in the future of global development.
Research Programs
Research at CID is conducted through seven primary programs that address the core intellectual challenges of sustainable development. These programs are: The Empowerment Lab, The Growth Lab, the Micro-Development Initiative, the Sustainability Science Program, the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, the Mexico Program, and the Migration Project.
Student Programs
CID is committed to cultivating and supporting interest in international development at all academic levels. Toward this end, we offer seminar series, fellowships, travel grants, and special events throughout the year for students across the university.
CID is a research center and as such, does not confer degrees or offer classes. Prospective students interested in studying international development should consider the Kennedy School’s MPA/ID degree program or its Executive Education progams.
Events
CID maintains a full calendar of events throughout the academic year, including regular seminars, research conferences and workshops. You may sign up to receive a weekly email of upcoming events at CID.
Publications
CID publishes the CID Working Paper Series to provide an interactive forum for CID Faculty Affiliates and senior researchers to share recent research related to international development. CID also has a second working paper series to provide a means for Harvard graduate students and postdoctoral fellows affiliated with CID to share recent jobtalk papers and papers submitted for presentation at competitive conferences.
Contact Information
CID is located on floors 3, 4, and 5 of the Rubenstein Building in the Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University.
Mailing Address:
Center for International Development at Harvard University
Harvard Kennedy School
79 JFK Street Box 34
Cambridge, MA 02138
Questions and requests for additional information may be directed to:
Tel: +1 617-495-4112
Fax: +1 617-496-8753
Email: cid_events@harvard.edu
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email"Over the last 200 years, new technology and forms of social organization have permitted many countries to attain an incredible improvement in living standards characterized by adequate food, shelter, clean water, education, good health, and enough income to live with dignity. However, many countries are still mired in poverty. What can these societies do to attain levels of human comfort that we know are achievable? These are the questions that animate the work at the Center for International Development."
Ricardo Hausmann, Director, Center for International Development at Harvard University