Rebuilding From Ruins

In March–what felt like 10 million news cycles ago–we hosted a webinar on the future of global development and foreign aid. But the meteoric evaporation of billions in funding, contract cancellations, and layoffs in our sector forced the question: do we even have a future to debate?

Our conversation, however, focused optimistically on a different question: Instead of wondering what the future holds, can we all help forge that future and rebuild the sector to be more resilient, effective, and equitable than it ever was?

After all, the sector has never been perfect. In a field that inherently requires collaboration, decades of donor dominance and rigid funding structures have mutated into fragmentation and counterproductive competition. But the rapid decimation laid bare the true extent of longstanding, fragile fault lines.

Yet, this existential crisis could also offer existential opportunities to enact long-needed systemic reforms. Our panel focused on these reforms, and across our panelists' urgent and practical recommendations, one theme stood out: To survive AND thrive, the sector must shift from competition to collaboration. We hope this thought piece illuminates how, why, and where the sector can begin to rebuild, with collaboration at the core. 

Our panelists described the development system as one shaped more by partitions than partnerships, where donor agendas often take precedence over community needs. 

What began as well-intentioned giving decades ago has morphed into an industry of NGOs, consultants, multilaterals, and others chasing ever-shrinking funding. Over-reliance on increasingly prescriptive funding has hardened siloes, slowed responsiveness, and prevented sectoral unification that could absorb shocks like the current crisis. So when the 2025 cuts came, they hit a brittle system resting on fragile fault lines. 

“The sector is in constant competition for funding, and collaboration with communities at the center may be the only way to move forward from current challenges. Donors can play a role in supporting organizations with the resources to reimagine their work…We talk about the intersectionality of our issues, but we actually don’t work together that well.” 

–Cheri-Leigh Erasmus, Co-CEO, Chief Learning & Agility Officer, Accountability Lab

Now, we risk a vicious cycle, where cuts could entrench siloing, spur brain drain, and add pressure to generous donors, all constraining impact and effectiveness. Together, the fragmentation fuels the very narrative that critics used to undermine the sector. 

“The donor-driven model really does necessitate the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots. Unlike earmarked contributions, flexible funding allows UNHCR to respond rapidly in emergencies, sustain support in protracted crises, and uphold a principled, accountable approach to humanitarian action.”

–Lacey Stone, Chief Development Officer, USA for UNHCR - the UN Refugee Agency

It’s tempting to let uncertainty be the only certainty, to wait for cooler heads or better angels, but our panelists argued for something bolder: Start building the future now.

“Everybody is trying to figure out where to go from here. But the sooner we act to maintain services, the better.”

–Lisa Bos, Vice President, Policy & Government Relations, InterAction

“More collaboration” has been a popular aphorism in global development for years now. It’s easy to say “we need to be more collaborative,” without prescribing how work needs to be more collaborative. But the forced pause in 2025 is also a forcing mechanism to answer that question: If we are going to revive and reform global development, how and why? Our panel mentioned a few core collaboration considerations:

• Collaborative planning and agenda setting: To more clearly align the sector, anticipate challenges, and unify strategies, the sector could coalesce around a common direction, identify gaps, and explore future possibilities, informed by the needs of recipient communities
• Collaborative resource prioritization: To improve efficiency, impact, and equity, the sector could coordinate decisions and programs based on data that span silos. Pooling best practices, priorities, and resources extends reach and effectiveness
• Collaborative implementation monitoring: To reduce operational challenges, strengthen local systems, and boost long-term sustainability, the sector could harmonize approaches behind shared systems infrastructure, relying on local partnerships as the connective tissue
• Collaborative systems shaping: To rectify power imbalances and render resilient development systems, the sector could reimagine funding flows and standards around more flexible models or supercharge policy coalitions to shape systems. 

These system-wide goals can feel far off, especially amid the current turmoil. The sector feels like it’s holding its collective breath, frozen by funding or waiting for certainty to stabilize the global economy. But amid entrenched challenges and emerging crises, our panelists posited examples of collaborative action already underway that could inspire broader improvements:

• Pooled funding appeals: “One UN joint appeals” are coordinated funding requests issued by multiple agencies, rolled into a unified and efficient crisis response framework, aiming to quickly and effectively reach specific populations with donor contributions. 

• Collaborative knowledge-sharing initiatives and platforms: The Humanitarian Data Exchange, the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), and the International Aid Transparency Initiative provide transparent data access, lowering barriers to learning and facilitating approach adaptation.

• Creative coalitions and strategic mergers: ID2020 has forged alliances between organizations that are otherwise competitors–like Google and Microsoft, Deloitte and Accenture–demonstrating that aligned values and goals can transcend institutional or competitive divides.

“Being more process-driven and more outcomes-driven is one approach. The most critical piece is sustainably transitioning to local ownership. We can’t miss this, or we may end up propagating the issues that plague foreign aid. This is an important wake-up moment for us.”

 –Dr. Krishna Jafa, CEO, Precision Global Health, LLC

Inspired by those recommendations and examples, we can envision a future for global development where we’ve moved from competition to collaboration:

It’s essential to have a big vision that motivates and unifies the sector, especially now. But so many organizations are simply trying to stay afloat. Incremental steps toward purposeful collaboration could serve both goals–to keep delivering amid crisis and to build a more resilient system in the future. We see some questions that implementers and funders could be asking as they strive to continue their work:

• What are we trying to achieve? What’s the core purpose of collaboration? Is it about strategy, delivery, or systems?

• What are the power dynamics of your ecosystem? Do you influence or fund, or are you dependent on funding?

• What kind of alignment is needed–and what gets in the way? What type of collaboration do you need, and where does friction arise?
• How will collaboration work in practice–and how can we adjust? How can partnerships be structured, particularly in terms of accountability and adaptation?
  
  

On the current trajectory, waiting for what’s next could impact billions of people globally–both recipients and the hardworking people in development, who are often one and the same.

But how do we redesign a system while navigating a crisis? Espousing lofty industry reform is as old as the sector itself, after all. 

“All of these things–systems change, policy influence, community resilience–take time, and we have to look beyond short-term metrics.”

–Elizabeth Stokely, Executive Director, Global Washington

Ironically, collaboration is the first element on which the sector should collaborate. No one actor has the answer or the ability to rescue us. Everyone has a role–donors need to loosen processes or let go of individual goals, smaller organizations may need to merge or share proprietary data, multilaterals will need to move quicker, a lot of people need jobs, and country governments will have to step up.  

Regardless of the shape of sectoral collaboration, local communities must be at the center. That change will be a big challenge, but no bigger than other challenges in which the sector has collectively progressed, like Smallpox, Polio, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, or extreme poverty, education inequity, and gender discrimination. Those challenges all required collaboration, but there’s so much success still unrealized. Necessary transformations will take time, but taking these on together will foster durable change and render resilience to withstand the next crisis. 

Our webinar helped us envision a bold future where funders, implementers, and communities have come together to weather this storm. How do we begin? Together, obviously.