Commentary

USAID education spending has been effective, and likely extremely good value for money.

As climate change accelerates and weather variability grows, life in hazard-exposed areas will become progressively harder. States have two policy alternatives to in situ misery or distress migration: in situ adaptation, helping people remain where they are, or planned relocation from danger, where ...

Judgment day is approaching for sustainable development finance. It is now ten years after the agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the launch of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, where leaders set out the vision of using billions of dollars in public finance to catalyze trillions ...

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...