ODI Global

"The established consensus that ‘immigration is good for the economy’ is colliding with strong political reactions." In light of a rise in populist politics and anti-immigration protest in the UK, a new working paper by our Distinguished Fellow Vince Cable explores the underlying drivers – and how policy-makers are managing these tensions. #Immigration #UKPolitics

Multilateralism is in crisis. The world is shifting toward a more regionally driven order, where power and security are dictated by strength rather than law. 🚨 This has been made strikingly clear by recent events in the US. Once a cornerstone of the rules-based order, the US now clearly sees global cooperation in transactional terms – as a business not a shared responsibility. This shift has created uncertainty and left a vacuum. From Africa to Asia, nations are adapting. Some are welcoming a less interventionist US, others are seizing opportunities in a lawless landscape. A new episode of Think Change examines what's at stake for multilateralism as this new global order unravels. Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, an advisor for the Bretton Woods at 80 initiative, Brazil's Ambassador to the UK Antônio Patriota, and our Research Fellow Yunnan Chen join our Chief Executive Sara Pantuliano to take stock of today's fast-changing landscape. The conversation covers the role of China, ideas for reinventing multilateralism, the significance of next year’s UN Secretary-General election, and more. Listen here, or find Think Change on your preferred podcast app: https://lnkd.in/eukBzsHD 🎧 #ThinkChangePodcast #Multilateralism #Geopolitics

In a world defined by rapid change and uncertainty, the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy underscored a stark reality in his Locarno Speech in January: “We must take the world as it is. Not as we wish it to be.” At ODI Global, we recognise the need to navigate this evolving landscape with open dialogue and diverse perspectives. That’s why we are launching a series of blogs featuring thought leaders from different backgrounds, each offering unique insights into today’s global challenges. The objective is not to provide definitive answers or exhaustive analysis. Instead, we want to foster debate, bridge the gap between different audiences, and share ideas across borders – connecting the global and the local in new and meaningful ways. First up in the series – just published ahead of the Ninth Brussels Conference next week on 'Standing with Syria', Haneen Ghali, an international criminal law practitioner at the International Criminal Court, gives her perspective on accountability in Syria. #Syria #StandWithSyria #Accountability #Justice

As we are witnessing at CSW69, recent aid cuts come at a time when gender equality and women’s rights are facing intensified backlash worldwide. But this isn’t just about budgets. These reductions reflect a broader trend of gender being politicised in multilateral debates, undermining decades of progress on rights and justice. In this new insight, our experts Caroline Harper, Ayesha Khan, Evie Browne and Ján Michalko, PhD break down: 🔹 How gender is being politically weaponised as a wedge issue to undermine multilateralism more broadly. 🔹 How these cuts undermine gender justice and democracy globally. 🔹 Why stepping back from gender-equality will have dire consequences beyond the development sector. As backlash against gender rights intensifies, we must ask: who benefits when gender justice is dismantled, and why should governments not step back from their commitments? #CSW69 #GenderEquality #HumanRights #WomensRights #AidCuts #USAID

The UK government has set an ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes by 2029, on top of important climate-related commitments to retrofit millions of homes by 2030. 𝐘𝐞𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐊’𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞.   Does the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) need its own workforce partner to provide more proactive leadership on recruitment?   Our expert Claire Kumar explores what DESNZ can learn from the NHS’s international recruitment model to address this pressing issue. Read the full insight here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eVu25KFF Sam Alvis Arpana Giritharan #NetZero #Migration #ODI

Here we go again. Last month saw another round of UK aid cuts announced. Another Minister for International Development resigning. By 2027, UK aid spending will be just a quarter of what it was in 2019. The debate about the rights and wrongs of these cuts will continue, but the reality is clear that the UK government's international footprint will look different. Three key takeaways: 1️⃣ The UK government can’t fix all the world's problems. It feels long past time to be a bit more pragmatic about the UK's role in the world. 2️⃣ The state’s role in foreign policy is shifting. With less money to directly finance development, and less notice paid to international rules or norms, the UK will need to ‘stimulate’ international cooperation—leveraging private investment and partnerships instead. 3️⃣ Domestic politics will shape foreign policy. Smart technical wheezes or pieces of legislation cannot substitute for public support. Building consensus around Britain’s global role means widening the debate, not narrowing it. More detailed reflections here in this ODI Global piece: https://lnkd.in/e6YPwTEj

Last month the UK announced it would boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, while drastically slashing aid to 0.3% of GNI – roughly a £6 billion annual cut. The justification? Strengthening security as NATO allies face uncertainty. But this trade-off sets a precedent, one that could ripple across global donors, further squeezing aid budgets. In this data story, Nilima Gulrajani and Jessica Pudussery bring these two targets together to compare Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and NATO member country's efforts to meet them: ➡️ Defence spending is surging. As of 2024, 23 of 31 NATO members meet NATO's 2% defence spending-GDP target. ➡️ Aid spending is falling. Official development assistance (ODA) faces a 31% reduction by 2029 from record highs in 2023. Only five DAC members met the 0.7% ODA-GNI target in 2023. ➡️ New NATO targets loom. Mounting pressure to increase the defence-GDP target could further pressure aid budgets. Explore these trends in aid and defence spending, and what the future may hold, through our series of interactive charts: https://buff.ly/z7lVyzD #Aid #AidCuts #Defence #DefenceSpending #NATO

❓ How can new digital ways of working generate better health data? And how can this improved data enhance analytics for policymaking? 💻 Yesterday we heard about the importance of keeping digital solutions focused on a clear health financing challenge, the importance of data governance, adapting solutions to the local context and taking account the incentives of different agents across the health system, and the need to ensure data systems meet the needs of all stakeholders. 🙏 Thank you to our fantastic speakers Animut Ayu, Ali Walinbwa, Andrew Kwiringira, Jean Serge Dimitri Ouattara and Hamza Ismaila, PhD for sharing experiences from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Ghana as they seek to improve the quality of data systems and analysis for health spending.   And to Moritz Piatti-Fünfkirchen and Martin Atela, PhD for their cogent reflections on the possibilities and challenges new digital technologies pose for health financing. I am grateful to Eoghan Brady Marie-Jeanne Offosse Pura Angela Wee Co Danielle Serebro Antoine Lacroix for their support in organising this session. 🔎 Given how nascent integration of financial and non-financial data is, there is lots of room for innovation and now this is the time when we need to be engaging in experimentation, iteration and learning from emerging experiences if we are to realise the potential of improved data informing policy-making and management decisions at all levels of the health system. 🤝 We are looking forward at ODI Global to future convening with practitioners working on better data for health policy. Please get in touch with us if you want to join our journey in understanding these issues, or have emerging experiences to share. And to stay in touch with our work, please explore our Digital Public Finance Hub and sign up to our Budget and Bytes newsletter, or join the Budgets and Bytes group! https://lnkd.in/ez7jFpDy https://lnkd.in/ermxmxuh

With the world focused on the Commission on the Status of Women and the Beijing+30 review in New York, spotting ‘norm-spoiling’ efforts is critical to prevent anti-rights actors exploiting these discussions to stall and even reverse advances on gender rights. ⚠️ With CSW69 playing a critical role in shaping global gender policies, norm-spoilers are actively working to erode established international norms and agreed language at the UN – weaponising multilateralism to undermine decades of progress. Transnational anti-rights networks are not only reshaping gender norms. They are also shifting global politics, with women's rights becoming a bargaining chip – especially commitments on reproductive rights and LGBTQI+ inclusion – as we saw in this year’s adopted Political Declaration. 🌎 Our explainer with the ALIGN Platform shows how to spot norm-spoiling at CSW69. To find out more read our brief: https://buff.ly/9cUeXAW #CSW69 #Beijing30 #WomensRights #GenderEquality #NormSpoiling #GenderJustice #UN

With high-level US-Ukraine talks held in Saudi Arabia this week on a potential peace deal, Ukraine remains at the heart of a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape. For Nathalie Tocci (Director, IAI - Istituto Affari Internazionali), a deeper reckoning is unfolding across Europe. For decades, the US was seen as a ‘saviour’ – but is that perception beginning to change? As divisions grow among Western powers over how to support Ukraine, Nathalie and guests Ann Linde (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sweden) and Olena Borodyna (Senior Geopolitical Risks Advisor, ODI Global Risks and Resilience) joined our Chief Executive Sara Pantuliano on the Think Change podcast to discuss: 🔹 How Washington’s evolving stance is reshaping transatlantic unity. 🔹 Whether Europe can sustain long-term support for Ukraine, or if a major rethink is needed.  🔹 What a broader power realignment could mean for global security, with China, India and the Global South playing a bigger role. Listen to the full episode to understand what’s at stake: https://buff.ly/2h6yYpW #ThinkChangePodcast #Geopolitics #Ukraine #Russia