Topics:
Energy, Governments and Development, Corruption, Transparency, and Governance, US Development Policy, Aid Effectiveness, Digital Dividends: Identity, Payments, and Subsidy Reform, Africa, Zimbabwe's Crisis and Future, Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse through Cash Transfers, Nigerian Debt Relief, International Institutions
Expertise
Africa, energy, development finance, cash transfers, US-Africa relations
Bio
Todd Moss is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where he leads the Energy for Growth Hub and his research focuses on US-Africa relations, energy policy, and private investment. Moss is also a nonresident scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He served as COO/VP at the Center from 2009-2016. Moss is currently working on electrification in Africa, cash transfers in new oil economies, and modernizing US development finance tools. In the past he led CGD’s work on Nigerian debt, reconstruction in Zimbabwe, the future of the World Bank’s soft loan IDA, and the African Development Bank.
Moss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State 2007-2008 while on leave from CGD. Previously, he has been a Lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE) and worked at the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Overseas Development Council. Moss is the author of numerous articles and books, including African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors (2018) and Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse with Cash Transfers (2015). He holds a PhD from the University of London’s SOAS and a BA from Tufts University.
Moss also writes an international thriller series for Penguin’s Putnam Books about a State Department crisis manager including The Golden Hour (2014), Minute Zero (2015), Ghosts of Havana (2016), and The Shadow List (2017).
Media Contact
Holly Shulman
hshulman@cgdev.org
Featured Work
In the News
May 29, 2018
High-res photo
More From Todd Moss
July 7, 2016
Blog Post
With election-year events crowding out the legislative calendar, there’s only so many more opportunities for the Senate to show its commitment to development and its interest in improving US development policy. Legislators still have a week and a half in town, and we were encouraged to see the Senate Foreign Relations Committee fit in an important hearing on the role of US foreign aid in spurring economic growth.
July 6, 2016
Blog Post
One of the nearest real-world examples of Oil-to-Cash is Alaska, which has paid an annual dividend to every state resident since 1982. One of the presumptive lessons drawn from Alaska’s experience has been that once a dividend was in place, political forces aligned to protect it from politicians. Yet last week, Alaska Governor Bill Walker announced the first-ever cut to the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend.
June 8, 2016
Publication
Testimony on US Sanctions Policy in sub-Saharan Africa. CGD chief operating officer and senior fellow Todd Moss testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health at a hearing examining the utility of sanctions as an instrument for achieving US policy objectives in Africa.
June 7, 2016
Blog Post
Last week CGD hosted an event on advancing women’s political leadership, featuring Malawi’s first female president and Africa’s second, President Joyce Banda. President Banda discussed her own experiences as a woman in African politics and her current work to encourage other women to become political leaders, arguing forcefully for leveling the playing field
May 31, 2016
Blog Post
Lobbyists. They’re everything that’s wrong about Washington DC. If that’s your perspective, then veteran lobbyist K. Riva Levinson’s new book will rock your world.
May 25, 2016
Blog Post
America’s development finance agency is constantly being pulled in three directions.
June 9, 2016
Event
Please join us for a special event marking the release of Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africaʼs First Woman President by K. Riva Levinson. The book is an insider’s account of Riva’s longtime relationship with Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, two women warriors in battle to help a nation recover from war, and a window into the strange policy trenches of Washington DC.
May 12, 2016
Blog Post
After several starts and stops, the Nigerian government has finally removed fuel subsidies, resulting in an overnight price hike of 67 percent. The economic logic of subsidy reform is clear. What’s notable, and potentially problematic, is that the government is planning to use any savings from lifting the fuel subsidy in the regular budget.
Pages
September 6, 2005
Publication
The international goal for rich countries to devote 0.7% of their national income to development assistance has become a cause célèbre for aid activists and has been accepted in many official quarters as the legitimate target for aid budgets. The origins of the target, however, raise serious questions about its relevance.
August 13, 2013
Blog Post
Senior fellow and vice president at CGD Todd Moss discusses his recent paper written with Ross Thuotte titled, “Nowhere Left to Hide? Stock Market Correlation, Regional Diversification, and the Case for Investing in Africa,” which lays out the potential risks and rewards for investing in the continent.
May 24, 2016
Publication
As the U.S. government’s development finance institution, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provides investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds when commercial funding cannot be obtained elsewhere. Its mandate is to mobilize private capital to help address critical development challenges and to advance U.S. foreign policy and national security priorities. However, balancing risks, financial needs, and development benefits comes with tradeoffs.
January 30, 2014
Blog Post
Of the many outcomes in the FY2014 Omnibus Appropriations legislation, one that stood out was buried in section 7081. This provision now allows the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to invest in fossil fuel power projects in IDA and IDA-blend countries. In other words, OPIC’s carbon cap has been lifted at least until the end of September.
March 17, 2015
Publication
The imperative for US development finance has increased significantly due to a number of factors over the last decade. There is growing demand for private investment and finance from businesses, citizens, and governments in developing countries. Given the scale of challenges and opportunities, especially in promoting infrastructure investments and expanding productive sectors, there is an increasingly recognized need to promote private sector-based solutions.
February 20, 2007
Publication
Africa receives only a tiny fraction of global investments in emerging markets. But the problem is not that fund managers are scared away by a seemingly steady stream of bad news out of Africa, nor is a general marketing of Africa to global investors the solution. Instead the authors of this new CGD working paper find that the small size of African markets and low levels of liquidity are a binding deterrent for foreign institutional investors. Drawing on firm surveys to explore why African firms remain small, the authors offer practical recommendations for increasing portfolio investment in Africa. Learn more
July 28, 2014
Blog Post
We are one week away from the first ever US-Africa Summit. As some fifty heads of state prepare to descend on Washington DC on Aug 4, the only certainties are that the hotels will be packed and downtown traffic will be a snarl. But what to expect from the Summit itself?
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