Episode 16: Old Aid vs New Aid

Disrupt Development

We have an imperative to shape the new aid industry to be fit for today’s challenges. The “aid industry” is an antiquated term and most people use it pejoratively. But changes to this sprawling, $200 billion-a-year industry have come so quickly that we don’t yet have language to describe it. Perhaps one day something like “impact industry” will catch-on, but for now we’re left with an alphabet soup of social entrepreneurs, NGOs, impact investors, multilateral development banks, philanthropies, socially responsible businesses, and on and on.

Drawing on two decades covering global development as the founding President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, in this Podcast Raj Kumar and I will explore how development aid is going through disruptive changes. What ‘old aid’ vs ‘new aid’ looks like, the need to move from a project focus to a business approach, how billionaires, tech disrupters, and social entrepreneurs are transforming the global aid industry, the importance of decolonising aid and much more global trends that will influence your future work.

Raj Kumar is the Founding President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community. He is a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work has led him to more than 50 countries, where he has had the honor to meet many of the aid workers and development professionals who make up the Devex community. He is the author of the book "The Business of Changing the World," a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.