Abrupt withdrawals from Afghanistan left many harrowing images of chaos at Kabul airport accompanied by troubling reports from other cities.

Words are the building blocks of policy. Over the last decade, individuals, advocacy groups, and institutions have called for development actors to reassess the old-fashioned language that once dominated the field of global development. 

The Donor Tracker team has used this last year as an opportunity to listen, read, and learn from peers in the development space and to reflect on how we can be part of the push to modernize the language, narratives, and terminologies used in global development. This piece shares examples of updates in global development terminology and encourages actors in this space to consider how the language they use shapes policies and influences relationships and attitudes towards their partners in global development. 

Will donors’ development finance be targeted where it is needed most? Will it achieve the ownership and support of the recipient country? Will it be provided transparently so that recipients and taxpayers can scrutinize it? And will it be properly evaluated?

Over the last few months, the Donor Tracker team has been following the impacts of COVID-19 in a rapidly shifting global development landscape. This slide deck accompanied a webinar where our speakers, Raimund Zühr and Zoë Johnson, presented some early insights into donor country responses, discussed the potential impact on ODA volumes and allocations, and explored how global development advocates can best respond.