Global development cooperation at a crossroads: what ground rules for partnership in a fragmented world?
Global development cooperation faces an era of profound uncertainty. Declining aid budgets, rising nationalism, and geopolitical rivalry are eroding the shared principles that once underpinned collective action on poverty, inequality, and sustainability. At stake are not only the future of Official Development Assistance (ODA), but also the wider legitimacy and purpose of development and international cooperation itself.
This roundtable will bring together voices from the Global North and Global South to debate a set of interlinked questions.
- First, what are the competing visions for development cooperation?
- Second, what 'ground rules' can sustain cooperation when long-standing policy norms such as alignment, mutual accountability, and global solidarity are contested or abandoned?
- Third, how can partnerships between unequal but interdependent actors remain credible in a world marked by strategic competition and divergent national interests?
- Fourth, what forms of internationalism might emerge to replace or complement weakening multilateralism?
Speakers will reflect on the political economy of aid, the rise of transactional and bilateral approaches, and the expanding role of South–South and regional cooperation. They will consider whether a new consensus can be forged around global public goods, or whether development cooperation is entering a phase of permanent fragmentation.
The session aims to stimulate an open dialogue on how to rethink legitimacy, reciprocity, and shared responsibility in global cooperation.
It will look for practical insights into how inclusive, flexible, and politically viable partnerships might be built for the remainder of this decade to 2030 and beyond.
Speakers
Arief Anshory Yusuf, Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia, and the Indonesian Regional Science Association
Emma Mawdsley, University of Cambridge, UK
Iliana Olivié, Elcano Royal Institute, Spain and European Thinktanks Group (ETTG)
Andrea Ordonez, Independent Researcher, Ecuador
Sebeka Plaatjie, President South African Development Studies Association (SADSA), South Africa
Andy Sumner, King’s College London and EADI President, UK (Chair)
This is a joint event with the Global Crises and Development European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes Working Group.