Foreign aid at a crossroads: What's next for global development?

With the U.S. Agency for International Development officially dismantled and its remnants folded into the State Department, the landscape of global aid is at a turning point. We delve into expert perspectives on what the future of foreign assistance might entail, exploring proposed transformations from widening the donor base beyond traditional Western nations to building new institutions and streamlining existing ones, such as the United Nations. This reimagining of aid aims to create a more effective and equitable system for a world grappling with evolving challenges and shifting geopolitical dynamics.With France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States all cutting their aid budgets at the same time for the first time in decades, many low- and middle-income countries are facing steep declines in support. While African leaders have called the cuts “brutal,” they have also maintained that the slashing of foreign aid may act as the wake-up call needed to break their dependency on traditional donors. We also analyze President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" and its potential implications for the global development sector.To dig into these stories and others, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and global development expert Nasra Ismail for the latest episode of This Week in Global Development. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

As development budgets tighten, donors, NGOs, and implementing partners alike are all grappling with an increasingly urgent question: How do you move money efficiently and securely to people who need it most — especially in complex or hard-to-reach environments, where traditional banking fails?One technology that’s gaining traction in this space is blockchain. “The speed, the efficiency, the transparency, and the ability to pay people very directly … [blockchain] is this very powerful technology in a crisis area,” said Candace Kelly, chief legal and policy officer at Stellar Development Foundation, whose mission is to create equitable access to the global financial system. Kelly joined Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren for a podcast recording at Casa Devex, Devex’s events hub during the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain.This podcast episode is sponsored by Stellar Development Foundation.

As the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development wraps up, Devex reporters Jesse Chase-Lubitz and Elissa Miolene join Associate Editor Thomas Cserép for a podcast episode reflecting on what transpired this week in Sevilla — beyond the sweltering 115 degrees Celsius heat.The big takeaway from FfD4 is the Compromiso de Sevilla, a document that participants view as both a commitment and a compromise. "Multilateralism lives" became the conference's unofficial motto as countries adapted to the United States’ absence. “It's more of a pickup moment after six months of global upheaval, and now moving forward and seeing what's next, and perhaps there'll be other actors that fill that gap, and maybe that might come from the global south itself,” Miolene said.Key outcomes include establishing a borrowers' group to amplify the voices of low- and middle-income countries, and creating a global debt registry aimed at promoting transparency. While climate language was significantly watered down due to the United States’ proposed amendments prior to their withdrawal, tax reform gained momentum, with renewed calls for a U.N. convention on international tax cooperation.However, civil society groups expressed frustration over access restrictions at the conference, while journalists faced rigorous checkpoints entering areas where negotiations were actually taking place. At the conference’s side events, private sector engagement was notably high, suggesting that despite falling aid budgets, there's a genuine appetite for partnerships — with the overall mood remaining cautiously optimistic about what comes next.

With aid budgets under pressure globally, delegates at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain, are urgently exploring innovative ways to fund global development. But as the spotlight shifts toward private capital, there’s a growing concern that essential interventions without immediate financial returns — such as health investments — could be overlooked.“We’re very clear that the cheapest money — concessional money, grant financing, and very concessional loans — should be allocated to those investments that give you this massive societal return, but not necessarily a financial return,” said Kalpana Kochhar, director of development policy and finance at the Gates Foundation, in an onstage conversation with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar.Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, demonstrates how strategic health investments can pay off over time. “Gavi has graduated a number of countries who originally needed that subsidy to bring in vaccines and help purchase them at a lower price, but now [those countries] are doing it on their own,” Kumar said. However at the recent Gavi replenishment round, pledges fell short by about $2.9 billion of its total budget request.The discussion also highlighted new opportunities to attract private investment in health manufacturing — from vaccine production to locally made bed nets — and reflected on the progress made since the last Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, about a decade ago.This special episode of This week in global development was sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Development leaders have converged on Sevilla, Spain, for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, or FfD4 — the first such gathering in a decade — as shrinking aid budgets and a U.S. retreat from multilateral commitments reshape the sector.At the 2015 conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, official development assistance was at record levels amid ambitious “billions to trillions” rhetoric — the idea that limited public funds could catalyze massive private investment to tackle global challenges such as climate change.Today’s backdrop includes the pandemic fallout, inflation, the war in Ukraine, and sweeping aid cuts. The U.S. participated in outcome document negotiations until the final stages, reportedly proposing 400 amendments to soften the language on climate and gender before withdrawing entirely, citing too many “red lines.”In this special live podcast episode recorded at Casa Devex, Devex’s events hub for the next few days, reporters Elissa Miolene and Jesse Chase-Lubitz sit down with Executive Editor Kate Warren to discuss what’s at stake and why this “once-in-a-decade” forum has taken on heightened significance.

This week, we have been closely following the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s high-level replenishment event in Brussels. Gavi, the leading international organization that provides vaccines to lower-income countries, finalized its five-year investment round event with more than $9 billion in pledges — falling short of its total budget request of $11.9 billion. The United States decided to cut its support for the organization, with U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stating that the country will not fund Gavi until it works to “re-earn the public trust.”On the topic of the U.S., our discussion also covers the Trump administration's decision to withdraw support for various U.N. Sustainable Development Goal commitments, alongside its absence from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.To discuss these stories and others, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Sara Jerving and Colum Lynch for the latest episode of our podcast series.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, we are at the Bonn Climate Change Conference. From climate financing to the absence of the United States, we take a look at the major talking points at the summit and contemplate whether the talks will translate into actionable policies. We also look at how the Trump administration’s plans to cut foreign aid funding could create unexpected domestic repercussions for American agricultural producers.This policy shift carries severe consequences, potentially undermining the economic stability of U.S. farmers involved in aid supply chains and degrading crucial international mechanisms for disease and pest surveillance that transcend national borders.In order to dig into these stories, and others, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with Global Development Reporters Ayenat Mersie and Jesse Chase-Lubitz for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

In celebration of our 100th podcast episode, we’re revisiting the most impactful global development stories from the past two years, covering the period since our very first recording.From the evolving aid landscape to the critical discussions around localization, we explore some of the key themes in global development that we have been covering. We examine the growing burden of debt in low-income countries and the urgent need for climate finance.During this episode, we also look back at the key takeaways from the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, where Devex was a media partner. For this week’s edition, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Global Development Reporter Elissa Miolene to mark this special occasion.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

On this week’s podcast episode, we unpack U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget request, which proposes sweeping cuts to foreign aid and includes the elimination of funding for major global health initiatives such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.The administration has also submitted a $9.4 billion rescission proposal to the U.S. Congress, seeking to formally cancel previously approved funds, much of it earmarked for foreign assistance. If approved, the move would codify into law cuts already made by the Department of Government Efficiency. The upcoming congressional response will be a critical test of foreign aid advocacy.We also discuss what happened at last week’s African Development Bank meetings in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where delegates discussed the need to diversify funding sources in the wake of U.S. aid cuts and focus on more reliable partnerships. The meetings also marked a leadership transition, with Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah appointed as the AfDB’s new president, vowing to mobilize private sector investment and deepen partnerships with the Gulf states.To discuss these stories, Devex Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba is joined by reporters Michael Igoe and Ayenat Mersie for this episode of This Week in Global Development.

This week we reflect on the 78th World Health Assembly, which Devex covered on the ground in Geneva. From the historic agreement of the Pandemic Treaty to the World Health Organization's strategies for addressing its persistent funding gap, we analyze the key takeaways from the conference. We also discuss the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid delivery mechanism, which is facing internal collapse and accusations of violating humanitarian norms. The organization’s now-former executive director, Jake Wood, resigned on Sunday, just one day before the private humanitarian organization’s food aid distribution plan for Gaza launched, saying that it was “not possible” to implement the initiative “while also strictly adhering to humanitarian principles.”This week’s episode also looks ahead to the topics we will be following at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development starting next month in Seville, Spain. Digging into these stories and others, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba and Global Development Reporter Jesse Chase-Lubitz to bring you This Week in Global Development.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.