The dirty secret of climate finance is that much of it is displacing traditional development aid. Calls for more climate finance are important, but if current practice is any guide, a large share of the funds will be taken from budgets that fund critical development priorities, such as health, educa...

Well done Andrew Mitchell. On Monday he will unveil the UK’s first White Paper on development for 14 years, and the first credible statement of policy and intent on the subject of any kind for more than a decade. (Yes, there have been previous documents claiming to be strategies, including Liz Truss...

Over the years, US lawmakers of many stripes have embraced the value proposition of foreign assistance. While their precise motivations have varied, ensuring US international aid is transparent, accountable, and effective has been vital to this long-running bipartisan support.

Koldo Echebarria’s fascinating paper explores the long and tragic story of Haiti’s struggle to achieve both political stability and economic prosperity. Despite mostly good intentions—at least in recent decades—and periodic surges in aid, one would have to conclude that the international community h...

International finance is under considerable pressure: originally prioritized toward economic growth in poorer countries, it is now meant to deliver broad-based sustainable development including global public goods such as climate and pandemic response—to say nothing of refugee hosting costs. In a fu...

The World Bank is the largest provider of climate adaptation finance to the world’s poorest countries. Adaptation finance assists countries to reduce the risks they face from climate change such as disease outbreak and rising sea levels. Lower-income countries (LICs) receive highly concessional fina...

Budget support offers direct financing to a country’s treasury to create more “fiscal space” for public programs. It has constituted some 14 percent of ODA on average, increasing to over 20 percent in times of crisis. No aid modality is more controversial. Critics argue that, without earmarking fund...

The rapid evolution of the development landscape, amid ongoing crises such as the war in Ukraine and climate change, presents profound challenges for all development actors. The various challenges intersect in unprecedented ways, amplifying the complexities faced by development cooperation providers...