The past year has brought dramatic shifts in global development, including deep aid cuts, volatile markets, rising geoeconomic fragmentation, and intensifying geopolitical tensions.
At the same time, our challenges are greater than ever, including a renewed focus on human development by expanding skills, talent, and technological capabilities; strengthening social foundations and pathways to inclusive growth; investing in financing approaches that empower rather than constrain; and reshaping governance and collective action for a more uncertain, multipolar world.
GEM26: Reimagining International Development convened leading thinkers and practitioners at Harvard Kennedy School on May 4–5, 2026, for two days of discussion, debate, and collaboration on the future of global development.
GEM26 Recordings and Highlights
Conference recordings from GEM26 are available on CID’s YouTube channel. Watch the full playlist or explore sessions by theme, from the future of the global economy to new approaches for development, storytelling, partnership, and action.
Key Themes from GEM26
GEM26 brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, philanthropists, journalists, and private-sector leaders to examine development from multiple angles. Explore the major themes that shaped the conference.
What was explored: How countries can navigate service-led growth, structural transformation, regional inequality, technology, and the energy transition. Sessions examined what inclusive prosperity can look like in a world where the traditional manufacturing-led development path may no longer be available to all countries.
Watch: Skipping the Factory; Transforming the Global Economy; Orchestrating Economic Transformation
What was explored: How development can move beyond poverty reduction toward unlocking human potential, expanding opportunity, and helping people and societies thrive. Conversations explored development through economic, historical, institutional, and human-centered lenses.
Watch: Pathways to a Thriving World; International Development in Time and Space
What was explored: How markets, philanthropy, cities, faith-based networks, civil society, and large-scale platforms are reshaping development beyond traditional aid. Speakers examined what these actors get right, where they fall short, and how development thinking must adapt.
Watch: Doing Development Differently
What was explored: How journalism, narrative, and lived experience can deepen public understanding of development and expand what counts as knowledge. Sessions highlighted storytelling as a way to bring the human realities of economic change, inequality, environmental costs, and exclusion into sharper focus.
Watch: From the Margins to the Pages
What was explored: How GEM26 moved beyond discussion through incubation rooms, cross-sector collaboration, and early-stage ideas for implementation. Participants explored practical pathways for turning research, partnerships, and promising ideas into action through the GEM Incubation Fund.
Stay Connected
Stay connected with CID for updates on GEM26 outcomes, future Global Empowerment Meetings, research insights, and upcoming events.