AidTalks

Just a month after the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), we dive into the Compromiso de Sevilla. With debt crises, austerity, inequality, and rising military spending on the table, civil society voices are pushing back. What was compromised—or committed to? In this episode, we speak with guests from civil society and UNESCAP to unpack the hits and misses of the o...

The changing landscape of development cooperation influences aid effectiveness and governance. Poverty eradication, as well as addressing other cross-cutting issues, has become tougher as multiple crises such as climate and conflicts exacerbate the existing conditions of developing countries. The instrumentalization and “inflation” of aid have impact on the broader financial architecture that shap...

The localization agenda has become a buzzword in the development cooperation arena in recent years. Particularly, the localization of aid is being forwarded by CSOs, communities, and other development actors as a way to ensure that humanitarian and development decisions are people-centered. However, gaps in implementation still remain and global South voices are largely left unheard. Together with...

Official Development Assistance (ODA), simply known as foreign aid,  is a form of assistance provided by global North countries that promotes and targets the economic development and welfare of global South countries or developing countries. In this Aid Talks episode, Haje Schütte from the OECD-DAC, Susan Engel from the University of Wollongong, Australia & Jiten Yumnam from the Centre for Res...

In time for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last November, the fifth Aid Talks, “Reparations & Resilience: Decolonising Climate Finance” focused on discussing how climate finance must be democratically owned by the marginalized in the global South to achieve climate justice. Particularly, the decolonization process must be geared towards the proper funding of adaptation, mitigation, and loss...

The strength of Black Lives Matter protests that echoed around the world in 2020 shone a light onto the workings of humanitarian and development organisations - organisations generally seen as committed to the greater good and staffed by altruistic heroes who put others before themselves. Hence it is not surprising that many western INGO leaders finally have been forced into engaging in discussion...

Aid Talks dives deep into how women and gender diverse peoples from the Asia Pacific region embrace, advocate and are ushering in feminist, just and rights-based solutions for lives,  livelihoods and development justice. Amid the long history of women’s and gender justice struggles and movements, we are now at a crucial junction and opportune moment for liberation through self-determination b...

With potential impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic on sovereign debt for the poorest countries in the Asia Pacific region there is a growing regional and international call for the cancellation of all external debt payments due to be made in 2020. Many of these countries are already in debt distress, or risk thereof. They lack vital societal functions such as health infrastructure, welfare and...

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency crisis. How much more vulnerable is it going to be for conflict-affected, fragile states where refugees, migrants and the poor tolerate cramped spaces, have very limited access to basic social services, and have inadequate livelihood to protect them from the shock of the outbreak? What are the opportunities for social movements that may come out o...