A Thriving World for All

Everyone is born with potential but many never realize theirs.
We can build societies where all people thrive.

Our strategy

Housed at the Harvard Kennedy School, CID works across Harvard University and a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. Through our faculty affiliates, programs, fellows, students, and staff, we invest in growing development thinkers and doers in three ways:

1. Build a Global Pool of Talent

We teach the current and next generation of leaders to think critically about development through degree programs, Executive Education, and experiential learning.

2. Convene Academic and Practitioner Networks 

We bring together leaders and thinkers from academia, government, private sector, civil society, and philanthropy to discuss development paradigms through conferences, speaker series, and events.

3. Deploy Breakthrough Research

We catalyze research to generate and apply evidence-based solutions to development problems through academic and practitioner collaborations.

“It’s important to remind ourselves that the person we’re helping today could one day help us.”

- Asim I. Khwaja, CID Faculty Director  

 

We Believe  

Incredibly talented people worldwide often never get to discover let alone achieve their full potential. Shocks outside of a person’s control play an outsized role in impacting their ability to achieve success. As a society we are worse for this. At the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University, we are committed to move us beyond poverty to a world that delivers maximum value for all. We believe together we can design and implement policies that help everyone realize their full potential.

Moving From Charity to Investment

Enabling people to grow requires reimagining what it means to deliver international development. At CID, we see people not as objects of charity but as co-investors in the effort to achieve our collective potential. Whether investing in the capabilities of public institutions, civil society organizations, or private sector companies to help people thrive, CID’s researchers and programs partner in countries around the world to generate cutting-edge research and evidence to empower people to participate in policy, markets, and their communities.

CID Research

CID is Harvard University’s hub for cutting-edge research on the world’s most pressing international development issues. The Center brings researchers and practitioners together to collaborate, using the latest analytical tools to address pressing development challenges.  Research at CID is conducted by our three core programs — Building State Capability, Evidence for Policy Design, and Growth Lab — as well as a talented, diverse community of 120+ faculty affiliates, fellows, and students: