It’s quite the buzz phrase: results-based development. But what is actually meant by “results”? Here at CGD, we think of achieved, verified development outcomes, not outputs, i.e. children actually learning more in school as opposed to just more schools built, or fewer deaths from malaria as opposed to increased roll-out of bed nets, or real-time satellite data showing more areas of tropical forest still standing.

In a new CGD Podcast I asked the same question of my guests, Dr. Raj Shah, former Administrator of USAID under President Obama, and Michael Gerson, former presidential speechwriter and Assistant for Policy and Strategic Planning under George W. Bush, and now a well-known columnist for the Washington Post. The two have reached across a generational and political divide to collaborate on “Foreign Assistance and the Revolution of Rigor,” a chapter in the book Moneyball for Government, which underlines the importance of data-driven decision-making in development.

Listen to the full podcast here.