A Changing Global Context for Development Finance
The global development landscape is entering a period of heightened uncertainty and volatility, with important implications for development finance. A combination of economic shocks, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, intensifying geopolitical tensions, and shifting political priorities has placed increasing strain on the global financing architecture. In this context, the Fourth Financing for Development Conference held in Seville in July 2025 sought to reinvigorate international commitment to the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and the broader 2030 Agenda. While the conference generated renewed political attention, its outcomes highlight the need for a more pragmatic and results-oriented approach to development finance. This urgency is reinforced by recent shifts in Official Development Assistance (ODA), including significant changes in US development policy, such as the dismantling of USAID and the reorientation of priorities under the Trump Administration (Klingebiel et al., 2025; Boussichas et al., (2025); Mavrotas, 2025). Together, these developments signal a more constrained and uncertain financing environment moving forward.
Development Finance for Food and Nutrition Security: Re-examining the Nexus
Re-examining how development finance can better integrate food systems and nutrition to deliver sustainable, equitable food and nutrition security.
This Policy Brief examines the evolving relationship between food and nutrition security (FNS) and development finance against a backdrop of worsening global FNS trends and the fast-approaching 2030 Agenda deadline. It focuses on key sources of development finance, namely remittances, foreign direct investment, official development assistance, and food aid, and brings together insights from the existing empirical literature. A central message of the Brief is that not all financial flows affect FNS in the same way. The composition of development finance matters, as different types of flows generate different outcomes depending on context. At the same time, governance quality plays a critical role in shaping these outcomes. Recent empirical evidence shows that institutional factors influence both the direction and the strength of the relationship between development finance and FNS, highlighting the importance of considering governance alongside the heterogeneity of financial flows in both research and policy discussions.
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Development Finance for Food and Nutrition Security: Delving Deeper into the Nexus
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