Commentary

While it is still unclear how long the current freeze on US foreign aid will last, and when and where it might resume, it seems the US, under the second Trump administration, may be ready to abandon its role as a lead aid provider. If so—other countries will need to step up. Here, we look at which c...

Pen’s Parade looks even more extreme than when it was first illustrated in 1971. The highest paid CEOs are paid close to $200 million. Some sportstars are paid even more: Christiano Ronaldo tops the table at $260 million. With a global average income of $13,170 per head and an average height of arou...

Since its launch in November 2022, the Pandemic Fund, housed at the World Bank, has committed $885 million in grant financing to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) in developing countries. In December 2024, it invited new proposals for an additional $500 million in fina...

In this blog, we look at the UK’s recent patterns in aid allocation. We find that UK aid has drifted away from those countries where extreme poverty is concentrated. The UK’s bilateral aid to Africa has been cut by two-thirds in real terms since 2019. In addition, the UK’s bilateral programmes are n...

The White House issued a press release three days ago apparently designed to justify the ongoing stop-work orders at USAID, alongside pulling agency staff out of the field and locking them out of their offices. I’d argue the release demonstrates precisely why these moves are a mistake. The press rel...

For the past two years, I’ve been part of an incredible interdisciplinary team—spanning economics, sociology, demography, and public health—working on a National Academies (NASEM) consensus study on women’s empowerment and socioeconomic development. The new report builds on NASEM’s influential 1986 ...

Dear Secretary Rubio: There have been few more eloquent advocates for foreign assistance than you. And I believe the case you make for US aid is backed up by considerable empirical evidence. As you have said, “millions of human beings are alive today because [of] the United States, and others in the...