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With donor priorities shifting and global crises competing for attention, the future of development aid—particularly for social sectors like education—has rarely been more uncertain. Given the dramatic reductions in US aid and impending cuts by other donors such as the UK, low- and middle-income cou...

Headlines on aid and global development are grim right now. The decimation of USAID has been swiftly followed by major cuts announced in the UK, and smaller cuts planned from a raft of European donors. Many of these aid cuts will lead to people dying. CGD Non-Resident Fellow Ken Opalo writes “this i...

Would a steep cut to the UK’s aid budget in 2027, rather than a gradual reduction, better preserve flexibility, protect international commitments, and minimise project disruptions?

With the US pulling back from development assistance, the UK cutting the aid budget to fund an increase in defense spending, and many traditional donors giving less and less to poorer countries, Germany must decide whether to follow suit—or stand firm in its commitment to global solidarity and to ta...

Following the termination of thousands of USAID contracts and the overnight effort to shut down the agency itself, we have taken a closer look at the stakes for multilateral development banks (MDBs) and major vertical funds related to health, food, and climate that are recipients of US funding. In ...

Evidence is mounting on the devastating effects of the destruction of USAID on global humanitarian assistance, health, and food security. Let’s take a look at another less commented upon, but still critical, aspect of the damage: U.S. support for energy access in Africa.

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...

A viral claim, spread and amplified by Elon Musk, suggests that only 10 percent of USAID money reaches its intended beneficiaries. This is a wildly incorrect and misleading interpretation of a different statistic—that 10 percent of USAID payments are made directly to organizations in the developing ...

My recently published note on the East Asian Miracle made me wonder why South Asian “turtles”¬—economies that have shown relatively slow growth—show no signs of overhauling East Asian “hares.” Starting from roughly comparable levels of per capita GDP in the mid- 1960s, South Asian countries have lag...

In this blog we introduce the findings from our new policy paper, in which we examine the mounting pressures on development agencies and outline five key dimensions of agency effectiveness. This paper marks the first piece of our new research series on “agency effectiveness” and lays the groundwork ...