The Global Development Network (GDN) is a worldwide network of research and policy institutes working to provide new perspectives to the development challenges of our time. A spin-off of the World Bank, GDN works to make policy-relevant research accelerate the pace of global development.The Government of India has granted it the status of international organization.GDN is engaged in research issues related to social and economic development, and encourages researchers by providing financial resources, mentoring support and a platform to share their research.

Every year GDN invites researchers, policy-makers and policy analysts to its annual conference. For instance, its 2012 annual conference was held in Budapest, Hungary (co-organised by Central European University) and the 2013 conference was held in Manila, Philippines in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the East Asian Development Network (EADN) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).The 2018 conference was held in New Delhi on the topic of Science, Technology and Innovation for Development.