Commentary

Last week, we published an estimate of cuts to USAID programs at the sectoral level based on two leaked documents covering cancelled and retained awards. Since then, a new version of the terminated and retained awards list was shared with Congress. Using that updated list, we revise our earlier sect...

According to a recently leaked document, the Trump administration is considering reorganizing the US foreign assistance architecture, with an eye to merging MCC, DFC, and USTDA.

Aid agencies across Europe and North America are seeing their budgets slashed. Replenishments to multilateral agencies from the International Development Association (IDA) through Gavi to the Global Fund are under threat. The countries most at risk are those most reliant on foreign assistance to fun...

The State Department is floating foreign assistance reorganization proposals. While there is surely a lot that could be done to make US foreign assistance more effective, I hope Congress focuses on the far more urgent task of ensuring the foreign assistance funding it has already appropriated can be...

The skyrocketing cost of high-cost, innovative medicines is straining healthcare budgets worldwide. In 2021, global pharmaceutical spending hit $1.4 trillion, with oncology drugs alone accounting for over $185 billion—a staggering 70 percent increase since 2016. For low- and middle-income countries ...

It has been almost two and half years since the IMF launched the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. While the RSF saw a strong initial uptake, demand peaked in 2023 and has since tapered off. Two key features of RSF eligibility and program design are inhibiting its uptake by countries.

The US Administration has presented a weak case for its argument that US foreign assistance was so riddled with abuse and fraud that the only answer was to shut down USAID and reboot. The lists of terrible projects and “appalling waste” don’t show any evidence of fraud or abuse, and I’d argue most o...