TABLE | Trends in Global Development Assistance Volumes (1960–2025)

Year	Global ODA volume (in billions of USD, constant 2023 prices)	Historical Context
1960	~ 40	Start of OECD statistics; rise of post-colonial bilateral programs
1970	~ 60	UN commitment to 0.7% of GNI; expansion of bilateral agencies.
1980	~ 85	Peak linked to the Cold War and concessional loans; prior to the debt crisis.
1990	~ 105	End of the Cold War; shift toward governance and structural reform
2000	~ 95	Relative decline; launch of the MDGs and start of debt relief initiatives.
2005	~ 130	Impact of debt cancellations (HIPC) and the Paris Declaration.
2010	~ 150	Stabilization following the financial crisis; rise in humanitarian aid.
2015	~ 160	Adoption of the SDGs; expansion of funded sectors.
2020	~ 185	Increase linked to global crises (climate, migration, pandemics).
2023	~ 223	Historical high; sharp increase in humanitarian aid and concessional loans.
2024	~ 212	Beginning of the cuts
2025	~ 174	With, 23.1% decrease over 2024, it is the largest annual contraction on record and a second consecutive year of decline.

Issue no. 15 | May 2024

Africas Rising?

Global Challenges

Issue no. 15 | May 2024

Africas Rising?

After a century marked by decolonisation and the imposition of a development model based on Western standards, Africa has entered the 21st century with a new status thanks, among other things, to its demographic dynamism (2 billion inhabitants in 2050 according to the UN, over 50% of whom will be under 25), its sustained economic growth, its extensive mineral and energy resources, and its drive for political leadership.

Additionally, since the end of the Cold War, emerging countries are successfully challenging the leadership of the West and are transforming this plural continent. If China has come to play a preponderant role, notably in terms of infrastructure development, the existence of multiple Africas presents prospects for a host of other international actors.

The continent’s development, however, is not without raising many questions, as it is still marked, in many ways, by issues of poverty and inequalities, as well as civil conflict and political repression.

The African continent is seeking more than ever to assert its autonomy of decision and action by making the most of its diverse potential. How will Africa – in its plural dimension – take advantage of this dynamism to write a new page in its history in the decades to come?

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Special Issue no. 2 | March 2023

Urban Morphology & Violence

Global Challenges

Special Issue no. 2 | March 2023

Urban Morphology & Violence

The essays in this volume are the product of a new ‘research practicum‘ course in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. They build on the debates on ‘Urban Morphology and violence’ to reflect on the associations between cities – their political orders and disorders – and outcomes ranging from occupation and resistance to marginalisation and containment. These texts foreshadow the possibility of centring – and challenging – the urban in our understanding of contemporary conflict, violence and peace. They are a first step in opening up a research agenda for a more textured analysis of spatial, geographical and temporal dynamics within the city in relation to violence, and, therefore, the mobilisation of spatial, temporal and visual modes of analysis. The promise is to make visible the varied roles of urban morphologies – adding to the debate on cities in and as sites of conflict.

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Issue no. 11 | March 2022

The Uncertain Future of Human Rights

Global Challenges

Issue no. 11 | March 2022

The Uncertain Future of Human Rights

After 70 years of existence, human rights are facing criticism from many sides, some even claiming their fundamental inadequacy for the 21st century or imminent end. The human rights regime, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and several subsequent covenants, is variously being accused of being elitist, Eurocentric and/or imperialistic in its universal claims and remaining blind to local customs and cultural specificities; of being implemented too tamely, inconsistently or even counterproductively by International organisations that are frequently co-opted by powerful state interests; and of being unable to address fundamental societal issues and transformations such as inequality, digital transformations and climate change.

Further critiques castigate human rights’ unmet promises, framing them as a neoliberal smokescreen, or admonishing their anthropocentrism, overlooking the rights of animals, plants or other non-human entities such as robots. In such a state of flux and uncertainty, human rights have also become, to some extent, victims of their own success, being articulated not only by an increasing armada of human rights actors and activists but also by atavistic forces referring to them more cynically. Such inflationary use of human rights, increasingly following a logic of transversality as reflected in the ever-expanding UN human rights issues or the flourishing of corporate CSR strategies and codes, ultimately risks eroding their operability and epistemic traction.

However, as shifting geostrategic constellations, the rise of populism, identitarian politics, authoritarian governments and the current epidemic are all contributing to further fragilising human rights, they remain more crucial to the world’s future than ever. The current Dossier therefore asks how the human rights regime will likely evolve faced by such challenges. Can it reinvent itself and, if so, how? Can we imagine human rights without the pretension to universalism and beyond the decline of the liberal paradigm? Are we moving towards human rights that are more collective in nature or of variable geometry? New perspectives and insights are needed from the legal, social and human sciences to answer these pivotal questions.

This dossier was produced by the Graduate Institute’s Research Office in collaboration with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

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The End of Development?

TABLE | Trends in Global Development Assistance Volumes (1960–2025)

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