by Hannah McNicol | Jun 20, 2025 | General
In one of Southeast Asia’s most repressive political climates, traditional donor models – often pushing external priorities that can be detached from local realities – have long struggled to deliver sustainable change. Nevertheless, for decades the hardest and most...
by Hannah McNicol | May 12, 2025 | General
In 2022, devastating floods inundated a third of Pakistan and displaced 33 million people. It was women and girls who bore the heaviest burden. Dr. Tasneem Fatima, Director of Health Services for Marie Stopes Society (MSS), Marie Stopes International’s (MSI) partner...
by Hannah McNicol | May 7, 2025 | General
How long have you been involved in the international development sector, and what first inspired you to enter the sector? I grew up in Zimbabwe in the post-independence era, and witnessed big changes introduced to rectify an imbalance of power, ownership and control...
by Hannah McNicol | Apr 28, 2025 | General
There are moments working in global philanthropy when I’ve felt I’m straddling two vastly different worlds. One world talks about funding cycles, strategic giving, and ROI; the other grapples daily with life and death realities – infant malnutrition,...
by Hannah McNicol | Apr 22, 2025 | General
It is a moment of reckoning. Swift and severe bilateral aid cuts are redefining international development. By force or will, we are entering a new aid paradigm that will test the core tenets of international development. There is no doubt that these cuts undermine...
by Hannah McNicol | Mar 20, 2025 | General
Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all foreign development assistance for 90 days on 20th January 2025. This threw the aid sector into chaos. Programmes received stop work orders or were terminated en masse, with a dysfunctional system for gaining...
