The changing global context for development cooperation 

This report outlines the global context and profound challenges facing international development cooperation, providing a backdrop against which the UK and other major donors are making consequential decisions about where to focus spend and deliver impact with reduced funding.  

The analysis is intended both to inform our reviews and contribute more widely to the debate on the future of UK development assistance.  

Key findings:  

• Global official development assistance fell by $50 billion (23%) in 2025 and is projected to fall further to levels last seen a decade ago. 
• Only 28% of humanitarian need was met in 2025. Of the 300 million people assessed as needing assistance only 88.2 million were covered by the UN Global Appeal and, even then, funding fell short by $3 billion. 
• Conflict is at its worst since the Second World War, with one in ten people worldwide now living in close proximity to armed conflict, a seven-fold increase since 2010. Attacks on schools in conflict zones rose by 44% in the past year. 
• 117 million people are forcibly displaced, with the total doubling in a decade. This includes around 50 million refugees displaced outside their home country, of which 66% have been away from their home country for more than five years. 
• At the pace of current progress, ending gender-based violence and achieving equality for women and girls would take another 100 years. A quarter of countries report a backlash against women’s rights. 
• For the first time in 20 years, the world has fewer democracies than autocracies. Just 20% of the global population live in countries rated as fully “free”, down from 46% two decades ago. 
• Total climate finance reached $1.9 trillion in 2023, against an estimated need of $6.3 trillion. The most climate-vulnerable fragile states receive only 10% of international climate finance. 
• Donors are increasingly using scarce ODA to mobilise private investment with mixed results, as the majority of funds (88%) have flowed to middle-income countries rather than the poorest, where financing gaps remain largest.