The International Development Implications of Brexit

Both the European Union and the United Kingdom are important players in international development. In fact the EU is the single largest foreign aid provider; and the United Kingdom's own aid programs, run by the Department for International Development, or DfID, are considered some of the more innovative programs in this space. Also, the UK is one of just a few countries to actually have met a commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on global development. So, it would seem the fallout from Brexit could potentially be pretty profound for international development.   To go over these big issues, I caught up with Mikaela Gavas of Overseas Development Institute, which is a highly respected UK-based think tank that focuses on global development issues. Mikaela, in particular, works on Pan-European global development policies so she is able to offer some deeply nuanced insights into these questions. (Also, toward the end of the interview, Mikaela expresses some consternation that as a British expert on EU policy, she may soon loose some credibility with her continental peers.)    If you are a global development nerd, Mikaela will give you a lot to chew on. If you are a more casual observer of internationals affairs, this conversation offers a good distillation of one way in which Brexit may have some profound global implications.