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The Harvard Center for International Development (CID), co-led by Asim I. Khwaja and Fatema Z. Sumar, will convene global leaders on May 4–5 for its annual Global Empowerment Meeting, a flagship gathering focused this year on reimagining international development. Bringing together policymakers, scholars, practitioners, and private sector leaders, the two-day event will explore how development strategies must evolve amid economic uncertainty, geopolitical change, and widening inequality.
GEM26 will open on May 4 with the launch of the Reimagining the Economy Project’s new Global Economic Transformation initiative, co-led by Harvard Kennedy School faculty Dani Rodrik and Gordon Hanson, and project director Rohan Sandhu. This new initiative represents a major effort to understand how to generate shared prosperity. The initiative will bring together practitioners and researchers from a range of countries to investigate new models to address the world’s biggest economic transformation challenges, including the green energy transition, innovation and global supply chains, and creating good jobs. The initiative underscores CID’s commitment to advancing innovative, evidence-based approaches to global economic challenges at a time when traditional models are under increasing strain.
Programming on May 5 will feature Nobel laureates and leading economists Esther Duflo, James Robinson, and Michael Kremer, alongside former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and current Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Samantha Power and a diverse group of global voices shaping the future of development. Through keynote conversations and expert panels, participants will engage with new research, fresh perspectives, and practical solutions to today’s most pressing challenges.
Now in its 17th year, the Global Empowerment Meeting is CID’s premier platform for bridging research and practice. Held at Harvard Kennedy School, the convening is designed not only to surface new ideas but to catalyze collaboration across sectors and regions. This year’s theme reflects a growing consensus that development must be fundamentally reimagined to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
Alongside the convening, CID will release a new collection of essays titled “Development, Reimagined: Pathways to a Thriving World” from CID faculty affiliates across Harvard. Spanning domains from education and early childhood to labor markets and social norms, the essays offer bold, actionable ideas to address complex challenges and advance more inclusive, sustainable pathways forward. Together, they reflect CID’s interdisciplinary approach and its role as a hub for generating ideas that can scale.
A hallmark of GEM is its emphasis on action. Through its signature GEM Incubation Rooms, participants will collaborate in small groups to develop early-stage ideas that connect research insights with real-world implementation. This year’s incubation rooms feature leading faculty and practitioners in the fields of Global Health, Development Finance, Human Capital, Sovereignty, and Development Cooperation.
As global development enters a period of profound transformation, GEM26 aims to challenge assumptions and accelerate new approaches. By convening leading voices and elevating actionable ideas, the Harvard Center for International Development continues to advance its mission of building a world where all can thrive.
GEM26: Reimagining International Development will be live-streamed. View the complete agenda and register here.
