For International Aid, Another Path Is Possible

“Let us begin with a simple but often overlooked truth: the people who care for others, who act with empathy, generosity, and integrity, are struggling. They are teachers and health workers, social innovators and small-scale farmers, community leaders and public servants, creatives and changemakers within institutions. They devote their time and energy to improving lives beyond their own, yet they do so with diminishing resources, limited recognition, and growing personal sacrifice.

Across the globe, the burden they carry is deepening. Structural violence, rising inequality, persistent poverty, health crises, and environmental collapse show no signs of abating. And yet, those best equipped to address these challenges—the courageous, ethical, and visionary—are too often undervalued, underfunded, and overlooked. Some are growing disillusioned. Others are leaving the fight entirely.

Recent developments have only compounded the urgency. From the erosion of global solidarity structures to the rollback of public funding for aid and welfare, the most vulnerable among us are bearing the cost. In many parts of the world, tax reforms have favored the wealthiest without delivering the promised benefits of economic growth or fiscal balance. Instead of enabling progress, these policies have accelerated wealth concentration, undermined democratic accountability, and weakened the collective capacity to act in the public interest.

And yet, there is hope…”