Devex: What to watch for in 2020
Raj Kumar, founding president and editor-in-chief at Devex

“As development professionals and aid workers return to their offices, project sites, and refugee camps to start a new year, the external environment remains daunting. … But these and other worrying trends go back some time. What’s more recent is our increasingly challenging internal environment. … For global development professionals, it’s what’s happening to our own institutions and funding sources that is likely to dominate conversation this year. They may not be on official conference agendas, but aid industry dysfunction and tumult will be the subtext of every panel and the topic of every heated discussion wherever aid workers gather. Here’s some of what to watch for. Aid politics … Aid funding … The humanitarian system … Cold War with China … Billionaire philanthropy … A pivotal year … Global development professionals will be watching these issues no doubt. But with so much at stake for development institutions and funding, it’s the internal questions that are most likely to dominate our conversation. This is a year with a lot on the line” (1/2).