Centre for Ethical Foreign Affairs
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International development

In 1969, an influential World Bank report recommended that rich nations assign 0.7% of their national income to support international development. Only after the Cold War was over, and shamed by mass famines in Africa and Asia, did most OECD nations take the target seriously. But in recent years, aid funds have declined, especially in the US and UK. Does aid work? How much should nations and individuals donate to support others? And what do the lives of people living in or close to poverty tell us about how we should approach international development?

How much aid should we give?

As the US and UK abandon the 0.7% aid target, is it time to rethink how much rich nations owe the world’s poorest — and how that money should actually be spent?
  • 3 minute read

An ethical approach to international development

Global aid budgets have collapsed by $50 billion, and millions will die as a result. What does “ethical” development actually require — and are voters being told the truth about the cost of cutting it?
  • 6 minute read

Fairness, not just funding: What the secure livelihoods research consortium discovered about aid

Millions in aid, yet trust in government barely moves. New research across eight fragile states reveals what really builds legitimacy — and it isn’t more roads or clinics, but fairness.
  • 2 minute read

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