While the majority of attention is directed at the United States dismantling of its foreign aid apparatus, Europe is going through its own overhaul — one that started long before President Donald Trump took office.
Recent rhetoric from the Trump administration telling Europe to defend itself has pushed the continent into budgetary action, but the continent has been rethinking its development strategy for years. In addition to cuts across the board, European development funding is shifting from ODA grant-based programs to investment-focused projects that explicitly benefit European countries and European banks.
“[Overseas Development Assistance] is the form our international cooperation took in the 1960s and 50s,” said Rémy Rioux, the CEO of the French Development Agency, or AFD. “What will happen now is just consistent with what the world has become, and we need a new architecture. We need to turn from assistance to investment — sustainable, inclusive investment.”