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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

28 commentaries

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, is a former finance minister and foreign affairs minister of Nigeria and board chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. She is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Global Public Leader at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

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  1. WTO Reform Is Everyone’s Responsibility
    okonjoiweala27_GIUSEPPE CACACEAFP via Getty Images_WTO13ministerialconference Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images

    WTO Reform Is Everyone’s Responsibility

    Mar 28, 2024 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala writes that meaningful change will come only when members other than the US help steer the organization.

  2. The Trade-Finance Gap Is Holding Back Developing Economies
    okonjoiweala26 trade iStock / Getty Images Plus

    The Trade-Finance Gap Is Holding Back Developing Economies

    Dec 13, 2023 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala & Makhtar Diop consider how to get more working capital into the hands of exporters and importers in lower-income countries.

  3. Confronting the Global Water Crisis
    mazzucato52_Mario TamaGetty Images_water agriculture drought Mario Tama/Getty Images

    Confronting the Global Water Crisis

    Mar 17, 2023 Mariana Mazzucato, et al. offer a seven-point blueprint for preserving one of the planet’s most important natural systems.

  4. Fixing the Food Trade
    okonjoiweala24_Sjoerd van der WalGetty Images_agriculture trade Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

    Fixing the Food Trade

    Oct 21, 2022 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala touts a more holistic approach that aligns policies with a stronger base of evidence about what works.

  5. The Trade Agenda Today
    op_okonjoiweala2_ FABRICE COFFRINIAFP via Getty Images_ngoziokonjoiweala Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

    The Trade Agenda Today

    Sep 30, 2022 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala interviewed by Anne O. Krueger about the challenges facing her organization.

  1. zizek30_Fatima ShbairGetty Images_gaza Fatima Shbair/Getty Images

    Protests of Despair

    Slavoj Žižek sees the pro-Palestinian student demonstrations as a signal of a much deeper, widespread malaise.
  2. carstens5_Getty Images_finternet Getty Images

    The Rise of the Finternet

    Agustín Carstens & Nandan Nilekani foresee a world in which cheap, secure, and near-instantaneous financial transactions are available to all.
  3. rodrik222_Kevin FrayerGetty Images_china solar panel Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

    Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies

    Dani Rodrik sees no good argument against industrial policies that accelerate growth in decarbonization industries.
  4. gros186_Sean GallupGetty Images_euro Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge

    Daniel Gros highlights the security risks raised by the prolonged decline of the EU’s relative economic power.
  5. op_ang1_retrorocketGetty Images_corruption retrorocket/Getty Images

    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    Yuen Yuen Ang

    While both the American and Chinese Gilded Ages raised material standards of living for hundreds of millions of people, their endemic corruption produced radically unequal and unsustainable growth. Ultimately, both periods offer cautionary tales about unbridled crony capitalism, not models for blind emulation.

    explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.
  6. bp india election Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images

    Will India’s Election Destroy Its Democracy?

    Since taking power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have stoked Hindu nationalism, hollowed out India’s democracy, and overseen an economy that is probably performing far worse than official figures suggest. And yet Modi and the BJP are genuinely popular, making them likely – though not certain – to emerge victorious when the ongoing parliamentary election concludes in June.

  7. benami213_YEHUDA RAIZNERAFP via Getty Images_israelflag Yehuda Raizner/AFP via Getty Images

    The Unbearable Lightness of Anti-Zionism

    Shlomo Ben-Ami warns that demonizing all Israelis will only make peace less likely – though that may be the point.
  8. alfredsdottir1_Getty Images_pay gap Getty Images

    How to Close the Gender Wage Gap

    Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir argues that Iceland’s experience lends further support to Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin’s research.
  9. brown107_Jeff J Mitchell - Pool Getty Images_covidvaccine Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/Getty Images

    Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line

    Gordon Brown hopes negotiations will conclude this month, and pushes back on a last-minute wave of misinformation.

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