Foreign aid budgets are being slashed not because of shrinking economies but due to political choices, development leaders warned at a Devex Impact House event this week — a shift they said is weakening the international multilateral system just as global crises intensify.
“The decision to decline [official development assistance]. … It’s a political decision that is not determined by GDP contraction in donor countries. It’s politics,” said Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of UNOPS. He noted that previous drops in official development assistance were tied to recessions in donor countries, but today’s pullback reflects a deliberate recalibration of priorities.
Moreira da Silva argued that aid advocates must adapt. “What we don’t invest in others, it will harm our own security and progress,” he told Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar at the event on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly. “We have to be humble and brave … collaborate more, coordinate better, and deliver at scale.”