Vijaya Ramachandran is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. She works on private-sector development, financial flows, food security, humanitarian assistance, and development interventions in fragile states. Most recently, she coauthored an essay titled "Development as Diffusion: Manufacturing Productivity and Africa's Missing Middle,” published in the Oxford Handbook on Economics and Africa. Currently, she is looking at the unintended consequences of rich countries’ anti-money laundering policies on poor countries, and at better ways to deliver humanitarian assistance. Ramachandran has published her research in various journals including World Development, Development Policy Review, Governance, Prism, and AIDS and is the author of a CGD book, Africa’s Private Sector: What’s Wrong with the Business Environment and What to Do About It. Prior to joining CGD, Ramachandran worked in the Africa Private Sector Group of the World Bank and in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. She also served on the faculty at Georgetown University and Duke University. Her work has appeared in several media outlets including the Economist, Financial Times, Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, National Public Radio, and Voice of America.