The Future of Foreign Aid ─ Development Cooperation and the New Geography of Global Poverty

The landscape of foreign aid is changing. New development actors are on the rise, from the 'emerging' economies to numerous private foundations and philanthropists. At the same time the nature of the global poverty 'problem' has also changed: most of the world's poor people no longer live in the poorest countries.

Building on an academic review of research on foreign aid, Sumner and Mallet outline a new vision of the aid system – an 'Aid 2.0' – making a series of policy relevant proposals for global development cooperation in the twenty-first century.

Andy Sumner is Co-director of the newly established King's International Development Institute at King's College London, UK. He was previously a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. Andy is an interdisciplinary development economist with research interests in the fields of global poverty, economic development, and inequality with reference to middle-income countries and emerging economies. He was listed in Foreign Policy's 'Top 100 Global Thinkers' and Devex's '40-under-40 Global Development Leaders' for his work on the 'new bottom billion' about poverty in middle-income countries.

Richard Mallett is a Research Officer at the Overseas Development Institute in London, UK. He holds first-class degrees from University College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies, both in the UK, and is currently working on the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium – a DFID-funded global research programme exploring livelihoods, economic activity, service delivery and processes of state-building in conflict-affected situations.