This report is the first comprehensive civil society examination of how changes to the rules – known as the ‘ODA modernisation’ process – have reshaped international aid. It argues that a genuine overhaul of the aid system must now take place, with Global South countries in the driving seat.

Aid – or Official Development Assistance (ODA) – is at a crossroads. A decade of changes to the rules governing aid, combined with deep cuts to government budgets in recent years, has fundamentally altered both what aid is and whose interests it prioritises. Rather than strengthening development cooperation, these far-reaching changes now pose an existential threat to ODA as a legitimate and effective tool for poverty reduction and global solidarity. At a time of escalating global crises – including climate breakdown, conflict, debt distress and widening inequalities – these reductions to both the volume and purpose of aid are disastrous for the world’s poorest and most marginalised communities.

This report argues that the process has moved ODA away from its core purpose of supporting development in the Global South. A genuine overhaul of the aid system must take place now through an inclusive, transparent and democratic process that fully involves Global South countries, civil society and all development actors as equal partners. It also sets out a series of clear recommendations for a fundamental reimagining of how aid is governed, measured and delivered.

Report by Eurodad