Philanthropic Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever Amidst International Aid Cuts

As international aid falters, communities across the Global South face devastating consequences—clinics shuttered, teachers unpaid, and millions of lives expected to be lost. Amid this crisis, philanthropic collaboration has never been more important. Collaboratives are showing their strengths, reimagining global development as more just, resilient, and rooted in local leadership.

The recent shifts in international aid have been seismic, underscoring the need for philanthropic collaboration. In 2024, official development assistance (ODA) declined for the first time in six years, by 7.1 percent in real terms, compared to 2023.¹ In early 2025, the US administration moved swiftly to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), deepening shockwaves across the global health and development fields. Clinics closed. Vaccination, nutrition, clean water, and rural education programs were scaled back or disappeared altogether.

Leaders in the Global South described the suddenness and severity of funding cuts as cruel and inhumane. As of November 5, 2025, USAID’s dismantling has already caused an estimated six hundred thousand deaths, two-thirds of them children.² Researchers project that an additional fourteen million lives will be lost by 2030 if the current pace of defunding continues.³ In the face of this crisis, leaders remain deeply committed to the communities they serve. Many are even asking: Could this moment create an inflection point, a chance to rebuild systems to be more just, resilient, locally rooted, sustainable, and self-reliant?

Philanthropy Can Be Catalytic with Philanthropic Collaboration

For decades, ODA enabled transformative gains in global health, from mass immunization to steep declines in child mortality. But it has also been the subject of growing criticism: power concentrated in the Global North, siloed funding, and cycles of dependence. Today’s aid contraction exposes these weaknesses.

Philanthropy could never replace ODA at scale, but it can play a catalytic role with philanthropic collaboration. Through flexible, risk-tolerant capital and cross-sector collaboration, funders can invest in systems that endure—supporting proximate leaders, strengthening public institutions, and leveraging technology to accelerate sustainability. As Nadia Kist of Blood:Water notes, resilience arises when local organizations operate “without restriction, delivering fully locally led solutions.”