Good Ventures made this grant, which will be paid over three years, with GiveWell’s input as part of our exploration of international labor mobility as a potential focus area.
Though formally unrestricted, the grant is intended to support the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) proposed research agenda on labor mobility, including 75% of CGD Senior Fellow Michael Clemens’ time and a pair of working groups on labor mobility issues. Dr. Clemens’ research is responsible for the issue of labor mobility initially coming to our attention, and his arguments on the topic remain part of the reason we are considering this issue as a potential focus. We also have the impression that his efforts contributed significantly to the US government’s decision to make Haiti eligible for access to the H-2 temporary work visa program in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
Dr. Clemens’ position currently is supported by CGD general funds, and it is possible that Dr. Clemens would be able to pursue the majority of his work on labor mobility in the absence of our support. However, our understanding is that most of CGD’s issue-specific work is supported by specific funders, and so we have determined that our interest in the cause of labor mobility and principles of good citizenship call for a grant.
We expect this grant to ensure that Dr. Clemens is able to pursue his work on labor mobility wholeheartedly and enable the above-mentioned working groups to take place, in addition to having other direct impacts on CGD’s work by expanding the total resources available to the organization. While we currently do not have a strong understanding of what those additional impacts will be, we value CGD’s work and feel good about expanding the resources available for the organization as a whole to pursue its mission.
Read more:
- Initial Report on the CGD Labor Mobility Grant
- CGD Grant Proposal
- Shallow Overview of Labor Mobility
- (Update) GiveWell Summary of a Conversation with Michael Clemens
- (Update) Summary of a Conversation with Michael Clemens and Cynthia Rathinasamy (June 2016)
- (Update) Summary of a Conversation with CGD (November 2016)