Aid at the breaking point | Nilima Gulrajani
from In Pursuit of Development Hosted by Nilima Gulrajani, Dan Banik
Foreign aid is under pressure. Budgets are shrinking, politics are hardening, and trust between donors and recipients is wearing thin. In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Nilima Gulrajani, Principal Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, about what aid has achieved, where it’s faltering, and how it must evolve in a fractured world. Drawing on more than twenty years of research on aid architecture, bilateral reform, and the rise of Southern providers, Nilima unpacks the deep tension between altruism and national interest and what happens when generosity becomes geopolitics. Together, Nilima and Dan explore how development aid can stay credible and effective amid a “broken social contract,” why smarter debt policy may matter more than bigger budgets, and what smart development power might look like for mid-sized donors such as Norway or Sweden. As multilateralism weakens and the UN system faces acute financial strain, the conversation turns to who will step up (e.g., Gulf funds, Southern providers, or new hybrid coalitions) and how reform, not reinvention, could restore both trust and purpose to global cooperation. Host: Professor Dan Banik, https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-banik/ Subscribe: Apple Spotify YouTube https://globaldevpod.substack.com/
Embed this episode
What this episode covers
As aid budgets shrink and multilateralism weakens, Dan Banik speaks with Nilima Gulrajani about what’s worth saving, what must change, and how global cooperation can still deliver in an uncertain world.
No transcript yet.