Latest Articles

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  Democracy and Governance

  Democracy and Governance

  Opinion: Doing development democratically

  8 Sep 2020

  Foreign policy and development policy cannot be content with just “good governance” and transitory results, write Alex Thier, senior democracy fellow at Freedom House.

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  The Future of DFID

  The Future of DFID

  Opinion: The death of DFID?

  28 May 2019

  Boris Johnson — Theresa May's likely successor as U.K. prime minister — is a threat to DFID's existence and independence. ODI's Alex Thier explains.

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  World bank

  World bank

  Opinion: A World Bank for the new world order

  18 Jan 2019

  The Overseas Development Institute's Alex Thier outlines five criteria for selecting the next leader of the World Bank.

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  Tax systems

  Tax systems

  Opinion: 3 years since the launch of Addis Tax Initiative, what's been achieved?

  20 Aug 2018

  Overseas Development Institute's Alex Thier and ONE Campaign's Jamie Drummond weigh in on the state and future of the Addis Tax Initiative.

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  The future of DFID

  The future of DFID

  Opinion: How DFID's new leader can translate development leadership into impact

  11 Dec 2017

  Penny Mordaunt has hit the ground running as the United Kingdom's new aid chief. Here are four ways she can channel enthusiasm into impact from Overseas Development Institute Executive Director Alex Thier.

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  US election

  US election

  Opinion: Foreign aid under Trump's 'America First' doctrine

  11 Nov 2016

  While policy details are thin, President-elect Donald Trump’s likely views on foreign aid and development assistance can be summed up in two words: America first. Alex Thier, incoming executive director of the Overseas Development Institute and former USAID official discusses what this might look like in this commentary.

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  US aid

  US aid

  The coming revolution in development

  3 Dec 2015

  Ahead of his departure from USAID, Alex Thier, assistant to the administrator for policy, planning and learning, reflects on what the global development community has accomplished together in this exclusive guest commentary. What challenges still lie ahead?

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  Sustainable development goals

  Sustainable development goals

  Here's how we end extreme poverty

  25 Sep 2015

  While the extreme poverty has been cut from 43 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2011, that still means there's a billion people struggling to move out of it. In this exclusive commentary, USAID's Alex Thier shares how "Vision to End Extreme Poverty" gives a new understanding of what it means to be poor.

• See all articles by Alex Thier