From the article:
"...Aid will become even more political.
'It seems we're returning to the bad old days of the Cold War when we used aid as a glorified payoff for [political] friends and allies,' says Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and former U.S. foreign disaster assistance chief under the Obama administration.
Instead of providing aid to improve health and foster economic development, Konyndyk says there's a growing mentality in the U.S. that aid can be used as a "goody bag" to incentivize foreign leaders to fall in line. Examples include Trump's freezing and reinstatement of aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in 2019 based on their immigration policies; his threats to cut off countries that don't vote with the U.S. at the United Nations; and his withdrawal of aid to Palestinians to pressure them to reconsider his peace plan.
The U.K. has also announced plans to merge its Department for International Development into its Foreign Office, a move that more than 100 charities say risks politicizing U.K. aid. These shifts by the U.S. and U.K., two of the world's largest aid donors, could set the tone for a lot of aid policy around the world, says Konyndyk..."
