Reimagining Development Cooperation in a Changing Global Context
Amplifying Africa’s Voices
Dialogue Series #18
The 18th Amplifying Africa’s Voices (AAV) dialogue took place on 22nd October, 2025 and explored the future of development cooperation—a theme of particular importance for Africa in today’s rapidly shifting global context marked by declining Official Development Assistance (ODA), weakening multilateralism, and growing geopolitical tensions.
Invited speakers included Alexia Latortue (Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow, CGD; former Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, U.S. Treasury Department), Rose Ngugi (former Executive Director, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis – KIPPRA), and Ben Katoka (Research Fellow, Governance for Sustainable Development Programme, IDDRI).
The discussion highlighted three complementary perspectives on how Africa can navigate this evolving landscape.
The first intervention emphasized the need for Africa to strengthen self-reliance at this pivotal juncture. Five key opportunities were identified:
- 1. Curbing Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)—which currently exceed annual ODA inflows—potentially freeing up as much as USD 100 billion per year.
- 2. Mobilizing Domestic Resources, consistent with the commitments of the FfD4 “Compromiso de Sevilla.”
- 3. Refining the role of ODA, ensuring that remaining aid is better contextualized, coordinated, and aligned with local priorities.
- 4. Clarifying the value proposition of external partners, prioritizing regional integration projects such as the Lobito Corridor linking Angola, Zambia, and the DRC.
- 5. Advancing context-specific and cross-border African solutions, as the erosion of traditional development paradigms creates space for stronger intra-African cooperation.
The second intervention underscored that amid global fragmentation, there are real opportunities to build a more inclusive and equitable world order.
Africa’s voice must be better aligned, coordinated, and amplified in global discussions. The Future of Development Cooperation Coalition was introduced as an independent, multi-stakeholder process to co-create a renewed vision for global cooperation.
Priorities identified for this reimagined system included:
- Redefining the purpose and principles of cooperation.
- Leveraging finance, technology, and global knowledge as catalytic tools (including the implications of AI for productivity and labor markets).
- Clarifying decision-making and allocation mechanisms.
- Enhancing transparency and accountability.
- Designing effective, long-term delivery models that balance risk-taking with adequate implementation capacity.
African think tanks were encouraged to play a central role by contributing ideas, research, and networks to shape this global reflection.
The third intervention framed this moment as a wake-up call for Africa to reduce aid dependency and take full ownership of its development agenda, as articulated in Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
The African Union’s G20 membership was cited as a major opportunity for influence, particularly through stronger coordination among African policy institutes. Challenges of fragmented partnerships were noted, with the “1-to-54” relationship model (where one western country meets with all 54 African countries) seen as inefficient and duplicative.
The discussion called for:
- Lowering the cost of credit and building a resilient African financial system.
- Ensuring that reforms of the IMF and World Bank—especially those related to quota formulas and SDR rechanneling—benefit African countries.
- Enhancing domestic resource mobilization and savings, as some countries approach a 15% tax-to-GDP ratio.
- Broadening and diversifying sources of finance, including from emerging middle-income countries that play dual roles as borrowers and creditors.
Key discussion themes emerging from the dialogue included:
Aid Models
Participants noted that traditional aid models often lack transformative ambition, focusing on social sectors rather than structural economic transformation. They emphasized the need to rebalance aid toward institutional capacity building and address the political dimensions of inequality in the aid relationship. Momentum was noted around domestic initiatives such as those led by the Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) to reduce IFFs, alongside a broader shift from aid to investment. Opportunities were identified in South–South cooperation, the BRICS New Development Bank, foreign direct investment, technology transfer, the AfCFTA, and implications of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
Debt
Concerns were raised about debt unsustainability and the high cost of capital, which crowd out development spending. Solutions discussed included more flexible and concessional debt restructuring mechanisms, stronger debt management practices, and growth-oriented strategies underpinned by private sector participation and digital economy development.
Multilateralism
Participants questioned the continued relevance of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and emphasized the need to hold donors accountable for coordination. The debate centered on whether to remain within the current system to reform it or to seek alternatives amid the breakdown of multilateral trade and finance norms. Despite increasing transactionalism, no country can thrive in isolation in an interconnected world.