Devex Pro Insider: Is Russia the future of aid? And if not, what is?

It’s hardly a secret by now that both the United States and Europe are pulling back from foreign aid. But that raises questions. How will the global south respond to the challenges laid down? And what might replace the aid model? One answer is, apparently, Russia. At least, that’s what one official said this week. That’s right. Russia has spotted an opportunity in the closure of USAID and decided that it’s time to step into the breach and launch its own international development agency. The head of Russia’s foreign aid and cultural outreach arm, Yevgeny Primakov, gave a long interview with the state-controlled RBC news outlet, in which he said new legislation was coming to strengthen international development work by his agency, Rossotrudnichestvo. It’s hard to know how seriously to take these suggestions — Russia has apparently tried and failed to start an aid agency before. Still, it looks possible that in the next few months, Russia may have its own dedicated and independent agency to fund international aid — and the United States will not. That’s not an outcome that too many development professionals would have had on their bingo card a year ago. Before you reach for the dictionary to start learning the Russian for “call for proposals,” however, do be aware that the new agency is likely to have a limited budget. Asked whether he planned to match USAID, Primakov demurred. No, he said. They were aiming for something more like Finland. Also in today’s edition: Some alternative ideas about how to fix development, and a look at grantmaking best practice. Bits and pieces OK, what’s actually next? Rather than waiting for the Russians to step in and pick up the slack, development experts and African leaders are thinking hard about other solutions, and we’ve summarized their thoughts in two fascinating Devex Pro articles published this week. One, from our regular contributor Jessica Abrahams, asked development leaders how they would redesign aid. They had some clear suggestions. First, narrow down the focus to helping the world’s poorest people, and move it away from other causes, such as tackling migration and addressing climate change, which need budgets of their own. Second, widen the donor base by looking at newly wealthy countries such as the Persian Gulf States. And third, build new institutions and mechanisms to deliver aid. One particularly fascinating idea was that rather than funding individual projects, countries should pay into pooled funds dedicated to tackling particular issues — emergency aid, health, and education — and countries should draw on those funds to deliver solutions. The second article was from my colleague Ayenat Mersie. She spoke to African leaders about how they planned to respond to the aid cuts from donor countries around the world. Their answer: For the most part, Africa is more than ready and willing to stand on its own two feet. Both groups, though, talked about the need for structural reforms to address issues such as tax and debt, where they felt the global financial system contains systemic biases that made it hard for lower-income countries to compete on a level playing field. Building BRICS. Sticking with the theme of how the global south responds to the U.S. pulling away for just a moment more, this week also saw the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One thing that emerged from that summit was a joint declaration titled “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.” The Atlantic Council has a summary of what was discussed, which highlights that the declaration continued long-standing calls for reform of the U.N. Security Council and of the voting rights at the World Bank and the IMF. But there were also proposals to address the debt problems mentioned above, including a BRICS Multilateral Guarantees Initiative, which will support lower-income countries to attract investment. Fair shares. Connected to that, there’s some debate right now about who’s paying their fair share in terms of development. A new analysis by the Center for Global Development highlights that — surprise! — it ain’t the Americans, who even before the recent cuts provided only 0.24% of their gross national income as official development assistance. There were six other countries — Argentina, Australia, Chile, Hungary, Israel, and Russia — that CGD identified as paying less than half their fair share. When it came to the quality of support, Europeans led the way, but many of the BRICS countries — including China and Brazil — were on the low side. Perhaps a little surprisingly, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were found to perform well. FFS FfD. Of course, that was hardly the only summit dedicated to addressing these issues in the last few days. We also had the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which ran until July 3 in Sevilla, Spain. That conference produced an enormous raft of proposals to address a wide range of issues well beyond debt and tax. Although the absence of the U.S. meant that progress was more limited than it might have been, there was a surprising amount of optimism from attendees about what did get accomplished. There were, however, a few gripes about the hosting. There were widespread complaints about the decision to hold a conference in the middle of summer in a city that gets to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius). If you do, maybe pick somewhere that can cope with the traffic jams caused by 50 heads of state and their motorcades. The traffic and the number of bigwigs meant that most people had to walk to the venue and queue for up to 90 minutes in some pretty extreme conditions. There were also one or two debates about how big your wig actually had to be in order for you to get the red carpet treatment. One Devex staffer came across a lady furiously arguing with a security guard at a checkpoint after she was turned away with her bag. “But, I’m a vice minister!” she protested. “Señora,” said the guard, “everyone here is some kind of minister.” Green machine. All over the world, development institutions are thinking about where they want their offices to be based. Does it really make sense to be in expensive cities in the global north, far from the communities you help? The latest to take action on this subject is the Green Climate Fund, one of the world’s largest climate funders, which has published a call for proposals asking for countries and cities to bid to host its regional presence. Segal flying high. Finally, let’s move on from talking about what can be done to improve, and chat about someone who’s already doing what we in the U.K. would colloquially call a bang-up job. That’s the Segal Family Foundation. In a recent Devex Pro Briefing, Patricia Malila Pinheiro, its director of programs, talked about the foundation's efforts to implement what’s widely considered best practice in grant-giving — trust-based giving, with largely unrestricted funding, over long periods of time, with a relatively low cost of acquisition to those seeking funds. In memoriam Simon Nanne Groot, a pioneering Dutch agronomist who dedicated his life to bringing high-quality hybrid vegetable seeds to smallholder farmers around the world, died on July 6 at the age of 90 in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, where he was born. Groot was the founder of East-West Seed, a Thailand-based for-profit vegetable seed company that aims to improve the livelihoods of subsistence farmers. In 2019, Groot was awarded the World Food Prize, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize of food and agriculture, for his efforts that lifted millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty in more than 80 countries. Read our obituary here. Moving on Nebiyu Dereje is starting a new position as head of division for knowledge management and policy translation at Africa CDC. Dereje, who is an epidemiologist, has worked at Africa CDC since 2023 as a science writer. He will also serve as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Health in Africa. The Philips Foundation, a Netherlands-based nonprofit providing health care in underserved communities, has announced that Margot Cooijmans will step down as senior director, to be succeeded starting Aug. 1 by Dr. Eddine Sarroukh, who has been with the foundation since 2001 in a variety of leadership roles. Up next Aid and AIDS. The 13th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, and virtually, from July 13 to 17. My colleague Sara Jerving will be on the ground. If you’re also attending, send her a message at sara.jerving@devex.com. Your week ahead. We’ve got two more Devex Pro and Pro Funding events this week. Tomorrow, July 14, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar will host a panel for nonprofit organizations on when it’s right to merge or join forces. Register here. On Wednesday, July 16, Devex data director Raquel Alcega will be speaking to Dutch development bank FMO about how they provide technical assistance. Save your spot. Jobs of the week Your Devex Pro membership includes access to the world’s largest global development job board. Here’s the latest opportunity: • Director of International Foundations, Organizations, and Institutions, Feed the Children. Search for more opportunities now.