With so much high drama in global development last year, it was hard to catch a breath and see the big picture. So let’s try.
Two events that neatly bookended the year best make the point: At the start of the year, the world’s largest development agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, was unceremoniously obliterated six decades after its founding. And just as 2025 came to a close, its sister organization, a relatively new development finance institution created as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation during the first Trump administration, was given the tools to one day rival China’s muscular Belt and Road Initiative.
Either of these could have been the global development story of the decade. They both happened in the same year, as did so much else.
About the author
Raj Kumarraj_devex
Raj Kumar is the President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community. He is a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work has led him to more than 50 countries, where he has had the honor to meet many of the aid workers and development professionals who make up the Devex community. He is the author of the book "The Business of Changing the World," a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.
