Radical transformations: Reimagining aid in a time of crisis

20 March 2025

In recent weeks, drastic aid cuts have caused huge disruption globally. Vital work must now continue with fewer resources, increasing the imperative for digital transformation. The global aid community must use this moment of crisis as an opportunity for innovation, institutional renewal and collective impact.

The last few weeks have turned the international development environment on its head. International donors have seen their aid budgets slashed, with immediate implications for the thousands of charities and multilateral organisations that depend on them to service the needs of the world’s most vulnerable. On the surface, this signals a sobering return to isolationism and a shift towards a new world order. As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated, however, crises often provide fertile ground for innovation.

Aid programmes have never been solely about short-term responses to emergencies and natural or man-made disasters. The most effective global development programmes have also always focused on longer-term capacity building and institutional reform, strengthening countries' resilience to withstand shocks. The key question now is: how can this essential work continue with fewer resources? Digital transformation presents part of the answer.

Digital transformation as a catalyst for reinventing aid

One of the enduring principles of global aid has been to target institutional capacity building. Strengthening governance, civil society and public institutions has long been seen as a way to address the root causes of instability and, in turn, reduce threats and enhance global security. Investment in resilient societies can prevent future crises – just as aid in controlling the Ebola outbreak averted a global pandemic.

Digital transformation has emerged as a key enabler in this space, both in modernising aid delivery and in supporting partner countries on their own digital journeys. Investing in digital capabilities enables countries to bypass traditional development barriers and accelerate progress, thus ensuring more efficient public service delivery and reducing aid dependency.

Harnessing technology for flexibility and scale

The Covid-19 pandemic showcased how some of the world’s poorest nations rapidly adapted to crisis by leveraging digital approaches. Countries that had already developed digital teams were able to deliver cash transfers and public health responses far more efficiently than those without.

Take Togo, for example. The West African country used digital payments and data to target Covid-19 emergency cash transfers to the most vulnerable and got the programme up and running in 10 days. The programme paid more women than men and also provided support to informal workers.

Digital cooperation, inclusivity and resilience

Examples like this have been facilitated by investments in digital public infrastructure (DPI) that leverage digital public goods (DPGs) which can support both digital cooperation as well as digital sovereignty and local ownership.

Sierra Leone’s OpenG2P was created during the Ebola response – and has since been adapted as a government-to-people social cash transfer architecture to countries in crisis points such as Afghanistan, Ukraine and Sri Lanka. This is a great example of the power of digital cooperation fostered by DPGs, bringing inclusivity, resilience and adaptability to different local contexts.

Investing in institutional reforms and renewal

Simply investing in technology is not enough – broader institutional reforms are needed, ensuring that digital adoption is accompanied by governance changes, workforce transformation and upskilling, and public trust in digital services.

As the examples of Togo and Sierra Leone illustrate, a bold new kind of leadership is required to truly disrupt traditional governance models and enable a new culture of co-creation – one that reframes the relationship between donors and aid recipients, and between governments and citizens.

To transform institutions we’ll need to redefine how we think about and measure impact: this means focussing not only on money – financial inputs – but also, critically, keeping a relentless focus on people and outcomes.

Reimagining aid for an uncertain world

The current moment represents a paradigm shift. Traditional models of global aid, driven by large-scale grants and project-based funding, may no longer be viable at the same scale. Instead, the future lies in collaborative approaches that leverage technology, drive institutional reform and renewal, and support local capability.

This is an opportunity for the global development community to rethink its approach and embrace innovation in the face of constraint, while continuing to champion values of international cooperation and openness. The question is not whether aid will continue to play a role in global development – it will. The question is how to make aid – and the institutions that enable its delivery – more effective, sustainable and resilient in a rapidly changing world.

Lauren Kahn heads up our Global Impact sector at Public Digital