Foreign asstistance scholar Owen Barder identifies four ”megatrends” shaping aid work. According to a blog post written by the visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, these are:
- Climate change, particularly funding for adaptation and mitigation.
- Low-cost communications technology, particularly if it changes the relationship between citizens and states in the developing world as well as change the landscape of accountability.
- The post-bureaucratic age in donor countries, with aid bureaucracies being increasingly “disintermediated” and the advent of greater transparency such as access to raw data as well as greater citizen involvement and crowdsourcing.
- Changing role for aid toward support for the most vulnerable, as seen in the emergence of cash transfers and safety nets.