Commentary

This is the fifth and final in a series of five blogs on the Biden administration’s global development agenda over the past four years. This blog focuses on the Biden administration’s record on humanitarian response and offers an assessment of how the new Trump administration could affect Biden’s le...

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is facing mounting pressure as global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and humanitarian crises demand increasing resources while development budgets are shrinking. With less than five years remaining to achieve the UN sustainable development goals, ...

As President Trump takes office, we examine the US approach to international partnerships, look at the foundations of the so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK, and undertake new analysis of US non-military financial assistance to the UK following the Second World War. We fin...

In October 2023, the Learning at Scale study officially came to a close. The study was designed to investigate factors contributing to successful improvements in foundational learning outcomes in effective, large-scale early grade literacy and numeracy programs. These programs are typically in short...

What will the incoming Trump Administration mean for US funding to multilateral development initiatives? We drill down on US funding for a subset of the major multilateral development, health, and climate funds, to see how funding levels enacted by Congress compared to presidential budget requests a...

In many countries new asylum seekers are not allowed to work for a certain period of time after arriving. The UK has one of the longest such periods: 12 months. Many claim that letting asylum seekers work sooner would act as a “pull factor”, increasing the number of refugees arriving. But that is an...

The US role in global health appears increasingly uncertain as President-elect Trump prepares to enter the White House. While his previous term provides clues about future directions, evolving dynamics with Capitol Hill and the overall budget picture will also shape the US approach. Still, if past i...