This Week in Global Dev: #139: Unpacking UK’s new aid strategy and World Bank’s approach to water

About this episode

The episode discusses the UK’s new aid strategy, the role of philanthropy in global development funding, and the World Bank’s new approach to water management.

We dig into the key findings of a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on philanthropic funding. As traditional donors continue to slash their aid budgets, we examine where philanthropy can help plug the global development funding gap and provide resources for areas the private sector is not focusing on. We also discuss the United Kingdom’s new aid strategy. As the country looks to cut official development assistance spending to 0.3% of its gross national income, the government plans to shift from a donor role to an investor role, while focusing its aid on fragile and conflict-affected states. As we look ahead to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings this month, we explore the former’s new water strategy, which aims to shift away from a narrow focus on infrastructure toward a broader, more integrated approach. To discuss these stories, and others, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Global Development Reporter Danielle Kaye for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

People in this episode

Host: Adva Saldinger

Guests: Anna Gawel, Danielle Kaye

Topics covered

• UK aid strategy
• philanthropic funding
• World Bank water strategy
• global development funding gap

Keywords

• OECD report
• official development assistance
• fragile states
• conflict-affected states
• IMF Spring Meetings

Mentioned in this episode

Products: OECD report

Places: UK, the United Kingdom’s

More episodes of Devex Podcasts

• This Week in Global Dev: #142: The new world order of aid: Inside the Skoll World Forum · April 23, 2026 · 28 min
• Special Episode: Visionomics - How Eyeglasses Drive Economic Growth · April 21, 2026 · 22 min
• Global Progress in the AI Era: The future of AI will be decided by small choices with big stakes · April 21, 2026 · 30 min
• This Week in Global Dev: #141: Inside the World Bank Spring Meetings · April 17, 2026 · 27 min
• Special Episode: Every Crisis is Political - Redefining Humanitarian Response · April 14, 2026 · 44 min
• This Week in Global Dev: #140: A look at the United States' new foreign aid strategy · April 9, 2026 · 33 min