In my job I strive to understand how policy reform happens: what, how and — crucially — who makes change possible.
Much of it has to do with the political realities and power structures in any given country or sector. With this in mind, the debate on the future of aid and of the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom — but also in other Western economies — makes me worry.
I worry that, on one hand, we know that the aid industry needs urgent reforms and, on the other hand, that the political space to make the case for aid is shrinking — and so is the opportunity to rethink the way aid works.