Thailand and Indonesia are hoping to become the newest members of a mostly high-income club: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. We take a look at what that would mean for everyone involved.
Also in today’s edition: Women activists breathe a sigh of relief after Gambia reverses course on female genital cutting — again.
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Clique bait
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an elite club. And like so many elite clubs, you’ve got to have serious money to be a member. OECD is home to 38 mostly higher-income European and North American member countries that together comprise nearly half of the world’s gross domestic product.
So it’s a big deal when a middle-income country qualifies for membership. Currently, the only middle-income members are Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Turkey — but that could change now that Thailand and Indonesia have become the first countries in Southeast Asia to be considered for OECD membership, Devex contributing reporter Rebecca Root writes.
It’s a major milestone but just one step in a long, potentially yearslong process, with no guarantee of success at the end of the rainbow.
Still, just applying can yield a wealth of benefits. For one thing, it forces countries to align themselves with OECD in critical areas such as democracy, rule of law, human rights, transparent markets, sustainable growth, and environmental protections.
Moreover, membership — or even the prospect of it — comes with economic rewards in the form of increased foreign direct investment. That’s key for both Thailand and Indonesia, which are aiming to achieve high-income status by 2037 and 2045 respectively.
Read: How Thailand and Indonesia's OECD entry bids could boost their economies (Pro)
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Shuffling the DAC
The members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee are known for being the world’s leading donors of official development assistance. But while these members still have a monopoly on ODA, new donors — and therefore new options for recipient countries — are emerging onto the scene.
So we’ve compiled a special report on who these emerging donors are and how they’re different from traditional DAC members. While our report shows they still don’t have the DAC’s economic clout, these newbies are putting in some respectable figures.
For example, Kuwait, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates spent $19.7 billion in aid in 2022.
However, many of these donors have steered away from conventional forms of development cooperation. On the one hand, this gives low- and middle-income countries new funding vehicles that are usually easier to access than ODA. On the other hand, some experts fear that a less transparent system could potentially ensnare the recipients in debt traps.
Download the report: Emerging donors 3.0
Close call
The elimination of female genital cutting, or mutilation as some refer to it, has made tentative strides over the years, as countries such as Gambia banned the deeply entrenched societal practice.
So when Gambian lawmakers threatened to reverse that ban — which would’ve made it the first nation in the world to roll back such protection — it caused an international uproar that galvanized women’s rights campaigners in the West African country.
Their activism paid off yesterday when the National Assembly voted to keep the ban, prompting a wave of praise.
“FGM involves cutting or removing some or all of the external female genitalia. Mostly carried out on infants and young girls, it can inflict severe immediate and long-term physical and psychological damage, including infection, later childbearing complications, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” the heads of UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UN Women, and U.N. Human Rights Office said in a joint statement. “In addition to recognizing this critical decision by the national parliament, we commend the tireless efforts of survivors, activists, civil society organizations, and faith-based groups working to end FGM.”
Related op-ed: 230 million women are affected by FGM. I am one of them
Troubled Dutch
The Netherlands' new government was sworn in earlier this month and, in Reinette Klever, it now has a far-right minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, charged with overseeing aid cuts of €300 million (around $326 million) in 2025, €500 million in 2026, and €2.4 billion annually from 2027.
Leading Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant published a lengthy profile of Klever over the weekend, helpfully translated into English here, which will surely make for nervous reading in Brussels and elsewhere.
It was already known that as a member of parliament, Klever had called for a complete stop to development assistance. Though that's not on the cards for now, as Klever is obligated to follow the cuts outlined in the governing coalition agreement.
Instead, the article goes further back to show her expressed views on everything from COVID-19 vaccines to her sharing social media posts with the controversial term "omvolking" (or “depopulation”), used to describe the effects of a feared mass immigration to Europe.
• In a deleted post on social media platform X, she claimed “Climate change is a hoax, invested by the elite to make a lot of money.”
• She writes that asylum-seekers bring exotic diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis.
• In May 2019 she posted that the EU was an "Orwellian pigsty of arrogance and hubris.”
• On X, she shared posts calling the COVID-19 vaccine "even deadlier than it seems" and denying the effectiveness of the cervical cancer vaccine.
Her new role has led to a softer approach — she’s said in interviews and at her parliamentary hearing that she will implement the cuts to ODA with "humanity" and "an eye for the needs of the world."
Oxfam program director Pepijn Gerrits told de Volkskrant that Klever would be judged on her actions, but that her past comments were "cause for concern," likening it to a wolf being asked to watch a flock of sheep.
Background reading: The Netherlands is cutting billions from aid. What happens next? (Pro)
Central to the action
When we think of philanthropy, we generally think of wealthy places such as the United States or Europe. Or perhaps burgeoning new entrants like Africa.
But Central Asia?
Marat Aitmagambetov, director of the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation, says the region is actually experiencing a philanthropic rebirth.
“For decades, the region had broken away from its civic-led tradition of philanthropic giving,” he writes in an opinion piece for Devex. “During the Soviet era, the ultimate responsibility for social welfare belonged to the state. Citizens were dependent on the government for their needs, and, as a result, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, philanthropy was neither understood nor trusted.”
But this is slowly changing. “In recent years, there has been a visible shift, as citizens and entrepreneurs begin to recognize the importance of philanthropy to fill gaps left by the state or business,” he writes, noting that during its three decades of independence, Kazakhstan has seen the number of registered NGOs grow from 5,000 around 15 years ago to over 23,000, some 18,000 of which are currently active.
“The younger generation is unlike my own, which was brought up with a reliance on the state. Central Asian youth think differently and see the world differently,” Aitmagambetov points out. “They will be the catalysts for change, but it is still the task of the older generation to provide them with opportunities to learn, clear the path for them to bring their ideas to life, and contribute to the development of a mature civil society.
Opinion: Central Asia is ready for philanthropy
In other news
Health workers in Côte d'Ivoire began administering the newest malaria vaccine to 250,000 children, marking the start of a regional rollout to curb the impact of the deadly disease. [AP News]
Human Rights Watch reported that over 60 children in El Salvador have been arbitrarily detained and abused since the government declared a state of emergency over two years ago to combat gangs. [Reuters]
Chad is asking for urgent international aid as over 2 million people face severe hunger due to conflict and climate shocks during the critical lean season. [VOA]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
