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Contact: Jeanette Thomas, jt@developingstories.com, +1 202 744-4829
Website: www.devcoalition.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2026
Washington, D.C. — The Future of Development Cooperation Coalition convened its first full meeting of Co-Chairs and Commissioners yesterday, bringing together senior leaders from government, finance, business, and civil society to chart a new path for development cooperation.
The meeting comes at a moment of growing urgency: rising fragmentation, constrained public finance, mounting debt pressures, and rapid technological change are outpacing the ability of the current system to deliver results at scale. The message from Commissioners was clear—we need to rethink development cooperation from the ground up. It is not only about what needs to change, but how.
Discussions focused on how development cooperation works in practice—shifting from ambition to implementation, incentives, and impact.
Commissioners converged around doing further work on six core directions, with country leadership at the center
Two central shifts emerged.
First, from seeing finance as the primary binding constraint to placing greater emphasis on how knowledge is generated and shared, and how innovation is created, adopted, and adapted.
Second, from mobilizing capital to making capital work—through better risk allocation, stronger institutions, more effective partnerships, and deeper knowledge exchange.
Participants emphasized the need to operate in a more complex landscape—where development, security, and technology are increasingly intertwined, and where fragmentation is making coordination more difficult.
There was strong consensus that progress depends on how effectively state capacity, markets, innovation, and civil society work together—with trust as a foundational asset—and that development cooperation must reflect a world in which countries and their societies are leaders, partners, and innovators in shaping their own development pathways.
Commissioners underscored that the Coalition’s impact will depend as much on its process as its outputs—engaging those who implement change, alongside private sector actors, civil society, and local innovators.
An intensive global consultation process follows this meeting so that the Coalition’s work is grounded in real-world experience and political realities.
Yemi Osinbajo said:
“This is a moment to rethink development cooperation from the ground up. Countries are no longer just participants in the system—they are shaping it. Our task is to ensure that cooperation supports that reality and delivers real opportunity for people.”
Arancha González Laya said:
“We are not here to produce another report—we are here to help reshape how the system works in practice. That requires bringing together different perspectives, confronting trade-offs honestly, and focusing on where cooperation can truly make a difference.”
The Future of Development Cooperation Coalition is an independent, time-bound global initiative co-hosted by the African Center for Economic Transformation and the Center for Global Development. It brings together leaders from across sectors and regions to co-create a shared vision and actionable recommendations for a more effective, efficient, legitimate, and responsive development cooperation system.
Website: devcoalition.org