As development and humanitarian advocates stare down 2025, foreign aid cuts are top of mind, but the forces shaping the new year are complex and nuanced. And while every year is touted as consequential or unprecedented, 2025 does appear to be substantially different.
That’s according to Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar, who held his annual global development “ask me anything” forecast yesterday as part of a Devex Pro Live webinar. The hourlong event touched on subjects ranging from corporate philanthropy to Chinese expansion, but it was U.S. President-elect Donald Trump who was, unsurprisingly, the big question mark for many in the audience.
Definitive answers about what a president who prides himself on unpredictability will do are hard to come by, but there are some trends to parse. Kumar pointed out that the threatened 30% cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development during the first Trump administration never materialized, with Congress acting as a bulwark against them.