The crisis of aid: ideal models for the future of development cooperation

The current aid crisis is not merely budgetary, but also structural, undermining the very justification for existing and relevance of the system itself. At the core of this crisis lies the inability of aid to respond to the tectonic shifts that have occurred in the international hierarchy, in the configuration of markets, and in both the experience and theory of development. This work examines such misalignment through five vectors: changes in the structure of international power; the revision of the diagnosis concerning the developing world; the plurality of objectives and agendas incorporated into cooperation; the need to redefine the scope of international financing; and the governance structures of the system. From this analysis, three “ideal types” emerge as potential pathways for reforming the cooperation system: focused; oriented towards international public goods; and diversified and shared. The author discusses the implications of each of these ideal types, advocating for the decolonisation of cooperation and the strengthening of multilateralism.