Navigating Change: Development Cooperation in a Shifting World

What will define the next era for development cooperation? In the current global landscape, marked by rising geopolitical tensions, significant humanitarian challenges, and widening gulf between needs and finance, Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets are coming under increasing pressure. Development agencies and multilateral development banks are being asked to scale-up support for global challenges and emergencies, while advancing partner country development priorities. The role, legitimacy, and efficacy of ODA are under intense scrutiny, and the global architecture for development finance, of which ODA is but a small yet crucial part, requires a profound rethink.

In the margins of the 2024 World Bank IMF Spring Meetings, the Center for Global Development is set to convene leading development policymakers to discuss the implications of the changing landscape for ODA and explore how—and on what—to use it most effectively.