The $1.3 trillion gap:

Twenty years ago, former Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short captured the tone of the times in a speech at the United Nations.

“For the first time ever we are capable of removing abject poverty, illiteracy and the diseases of poverty from the human condition,” she told the Commission for Social Development. “The current intensification of global economic integration has demonstrated that there is enough knowledge, technology and capital to bring development to all the people of the world.” 

She was right. Humanity can still achieve these goals if we work together.

But the context has changed dramatically. She spoke at a time when globalization and cooperation peaked, before the 2008 global financial crisis. Today, economic integration has changed from a tool of progress to a weapon of geopolitical competition, as U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper wrote in The Economist in recent weeks. 

The integration that Clare Short believed would form the foundation of coalitions needed for progress may be weaker than many of us would like, but her central point is correct. Development needs cooperation, cocreation, and coalition. To respond to a fragmenting world, we must work harder than ever to achieve the goals one pioneering international Development Secretary described 20 years ago. 

The more leaders I meet and communities I visit, the clearer the challenge becomes. The needs of billions of people living in the poorest countries in the world cannot be met with the resources and systems meant to serve them.  

There is, however, no doubt that development has improved the lives of billions of people. Over the past 25 years, extreme poverty has fallen dramatically. Child deaths have been cut by more than half, and millions of people have access to services that simply did not exist at the turn of the century. Those gains are real, and they were hard-won. 

The world has changed since 2006. We are now in an era of hard power and geopolitical rivalries with crises increasing. Countries have less to spend as they face security threats.

Low- and middle-income countries are calling for change. They want long-term, genuine partnerships. Relationships not grounded in old hierarchies but based on mutual respect and shared priorities. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the global south is calling for cooperation based on solidarity, equality, and sustainability, not relationships where development choices are constrained by unequal power and historic disadvantage.

The question, then, is not whether development still matters, but whether we are willing to work together in a way that matches today’s reality. The coalitions and ways of working we had understood to be permanent can no longer be taken for granted. The future of impactful development will not be a simple question of how much is spent. Increasingly, it will be a question of convening and aligning the global system to enable collective action in support of countries leading their own development. 

We can already see why this matters. The current crisis in Iran has once again exposed how fragile energy systems, dependence on volatile fossil fuel supply chains, and underinvestment in resilience lead to higher costs, insecurity, and instability far beyond the region. In a more contested world, international development and diplomacy can no longer operate in parallel lanes but must be aligned to deliver both impact and influence.

The U.K. has a vital part to play. That’s why the U.K. is hosting the upcoming Global Partnerships Conference together with South Africa, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, or CIFF, and British International Investment, or BII, on May 19–20. 

The world ODA was designed for is gone. The challenges are also shifting. Hard power has become more dominant in transactions between countries. Global conflicts are prevalent and protracted. Humanitarian needs outstrip response capacity. Climate change, pandemics, food insecurity, and ongoing conflicts are increasingly threatening the lives of billions. 

Coalitions can help. When governments, multilateral organizations, private investors, philanthropies, and civil society align around shared objectives, and are prepared to share both risk and accountability, scale becomes possible. Unlocking private finance while ensuring development impact is clear becomes essential. Avoiding duplication and drawing on differential strengths of diverse organizations are in everyone’s interests.

We must lift our sights from the day-to-day demands and ask ourselves how we can address fundamental, long-term, global challenges. The case for innovative, adaptive, and collaborative solutions has never been stronger. 

Too many initiatives proclaim partnership while quietly preserving the same hierarchies that have always held progress back. 

In future, countries must have greater control over their own resources. ODA supports progress, but it cannot substitute for functioning fiscal systems. When countries increase domestic revenue, they gain not just money but agency. That is why partnerships must be grounded in expertise, not just grants alone. 

When U.K. tax specialists worked with Ghanaian counterparts to strengthen revenue systems, the result was an extra £100 million in the African country’s 2024 domestic tax revenues. Crucially, that money is Ghana’s to invest according to its own priorities. In 2025, an internal FCDO-funded analysis by Palladium showed that Ghana spent 10.2% of government expenditure on health, and will be further increasing its health budget by 32% in 2026.  

The Global Partnerships Conference will bring together global leaders, innovators, and those new to working on development to consider systems of international cooperation. This is a focused moment to move beyond fragmented responses and bring together governments, multilateral institutions, business, philanthropy, technology, and civil society to challenge how cooperation is financed, governed, and delivered. 

To join the conversation, the conference brings in private investors, innovators, and businesses that may not traditionally define their work as “development,” but that are shaping outcomes through the finance they mobilize, the systems they design, and the risks they manage. Together we can shape solutions from the outset, align capital with country priorities, and work alongside governments and partners to make better choices with countries in the lead.

Discussions will center on urgent global challenges, including humanitarian response, climate, health, migration, jobs, and violence against women and girls.

Participants will be invited to confront important questions including how to mobilize sustainable finance at scale, how to use technology and data responsibly, how to share risk and improve decision‑making, and how to make sure it is country leadership and locally led delivery driving change.

In the future, international cooperation will look different. New coalitions on finance, technology, humanitarian reform, and jobs will replace fragmentation with coordinated action, shifting power, decision‑making, and resources closer to countries and those best placed to deliver.

Most importantly, we must make sure the outcomes and commitments from the Global Partnerships Conference can inform what happens next. A shared Compact on International Cooperation will provide common principles for financing, reform, and partnership aligned with ongoing processes across the G7, G20, and multilateral reform. The ambition is to reduce friction and accelerate collective action.

The success of this conference will depend on what participants are prepared to change, not just what they are prepared to sign.