DevelopmentAid Dialogues

Beyond Bottomless Wallets: The Strategic Reality of Gulf Economic Diplomacy. A Dialogue with Damyana Bakardzhieva

As the ongoing U.S./Israel–Iran war reverberates across the region—affecting energy markets, transport routes, and economic stability in the Middle East and North Africa—the question for the development sector is becoming more urgent: can Gulf donors sustain their expanding role in global aid, or will their priorities shift inward?   In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Dr. Damyana Bakardzhieva, Senior Research Fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomacy Academy, to examine whether the Gulf’s rise as a development partner is resilient, or more constrained than headlines suggest.  Bakardzhieva pushed back on the idea that Gulf countries are simply stepping in to replace Western donors. “There are two fundamental flaws with that narrative,” she explained. “The first is to consider that the Gulf approach to foreign aid is purely opportunistic. Their approach is way more strategic and structured than this kind of reasoning would assume.”   She warned against overstating the scale of Gulf contributions. “The second flaw is to consider the Gulf countries as bottomless wallets on standby,” she said. Referring to recent OECD data published in April 2026, she noted that even a significant increase in Gulf aid would fall far short of compensating for Western cuts. “Even if they were to double their 2025 foreign aid contributions, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait would only be adding four and a half to five billion dollars,” she said, compared to “over US$40 billion” withdrawn by Development Assistance Committee countries in the past two years. “No matter how much the Gulf countries contribute extra, they cannot compensate for the major gaps.”  She also pointed to structural differences in how aid is delivered. “A lot of Western aid has traditionally been tied,” she explained, often limiting how recipients can use it. “The case of Gulf aid is different. It is not tied aid in general.” That flexibility, combined with regional priorities, shapes where funding flows.   Bakardzhieva drew a distinction between redirection and retrenchment. “Geopolitical conflicts lead to increased aid within that region,” she said, adding “though often in the form of humanitarian assistance.” Broader macroeconomic pressures—rising energy prices, inflation, and constrained fiscal space—could also affect aid globally. “With the same amount of cash, you can basically purchase much less real goods,” she noted.  However, she argued that Gulf countries are structurally better positioned than most to maintain commitments. “They have very strong fiscal fundamentals and well-stocked sovereign wealth funds,” she said. While defense spending may rise, “they do not need to redirect aid spending into defense spending.”  Listen to the full episode with Damyana Bakardzhieva on DevelopmentAid Dialogues. Stay informed and stay engaged.  The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid [https://www.developmentaid.org/]. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected  [https://linktr.ee/devaid_dialogues]

Reclaiming Civic Space Amid Global Repression: A dialogue with Lotfullah Najafizada from Afghanistan ahead of the Ottawa Civic Space Summit

In this episode of DevelopmentAid Dialogue [https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/podcasts]s, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Lotfullah Najafizada [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lotfullah-najafizada-32a4532b/], an Afghan journalist and founder of Amu TV, a Washington-based international news outlet reaching audiences inside and outside Afghanistan.   With nearly 20 years on Afghan media frontlines—including over a decade as Tolo News director and multiple Press Freedom Awards— he joined us ahead of the Ottawa Civic Space Summit, a global platform to resist repression and reimagine inclusive democracy, where Lotfullah will be a speaker within the panel entitled: Reclaim the Public Square: Media Freedom, Journalism and Civic Space [https://app.glueup.com/event/igniting-hope-143591/?utm_medium=eventarticle&utm_source=Glue+Up&utm_campaign=civic_space_summit&utm_content=Register&utm_term=Development+Aid#agenda].  "The public square, where the public should have its say, is eroding," Najafizada said, citing Democracy Without Borders' count of 91 or 92 autocracies versus 85 or 87 democracies—a recession hitting discourse hardest. State actors erode trust fastest through systematic censorship, as in Taliban Afghanistan where the region's freest media became most closed. "Censorship is killing trust," he told DevelopmentAid Dialogues, with even democracies pressuring media per Reporters Without Borders' reddening index.  U.S. media shows resilience against Trump's post-2025 attacks on CNN and NYT, but polarization creates silos: "You can easily live in one world and be very distant from the other." Journalists face constraints—hundreds arrested by the Taliban, rising legal woes—making them civic space's last defense. "We are working very hard for our own survival," he said, urging alliances to protect reporters.  Governments pledge free expression yet pass surveillance laws without follow-through, like Canada's G7 transnational repression nod. Newsrooms must get creative despite cuts: Amu TV's WhatsApp call-in draws 6,000 Afghan callers hourly, bypassing the Taliban firewalls that ban women interviewing men, while being uncovered. "That makes blanket censorship impossible," Najafizada said.  For 2026 survival, he ranks independent funding first—"if you don't survive, how can you do your job?"—then legal shields, tech tools like Citizen Lab, and platform accountability. Social media lacks editorial oversight; push digital literacy against AI floods and X algorithms. A healthy civic space lets reporters probe without fear and citizens criticize sans punishment—rights which are currently under global attack.  This podcast episode is part of a collaboration between DevelopmentAid, Resilient Societies and Cooperation Canada [https://www.developmentaid.org/organizations/view/61454/cooperation-canada] around the Ottawa Civic Space Summit, [https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/205032/ottawa-civic-space-summit] a new global platform to resist repression, reclaim civic power, and reimagine a more inclusive democratic future. The Summit will take place in Ottawa, Canada, from April 21 to 23, 2025. This bold gathering will bring together civil society leaders, civic space activists, governments, donors, media, academics, and private sector allies to ignite hope and drive change. For registration, follow this link [https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/205032/ottawa-civic-space-summit]. The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid [https://www.developmentaid.org/]. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected  [https://linktr.ee/devaid_dialogues]

From Starlink to Scarcity: Dialogue with Jonathan Criss—the SpaceX Engineer Solving Earth’s Water Crisis

In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Jonathan Criss [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcriss/], CEO and Founder of Vital Lyfe [https://www.linkedin.com/company/vital-lyfe/]. After more than 13 years working on Dragon and Starlink [https://www.linkedin.com/company/starlink/], from cargo racks to reusable spacecraft, Criss left to establish Vital Lyfe, a company building small-scale purification systems for remote villages, disaster zones and infrastructure-poor communities already feeling the pressure of climate change. "All the way throughout my SpaceX [https://www.linkedin.com/company/spacex/] career, it was just another step of what is the next hard challenge that needs to be solved," he said.  Criss pushed back against the idea that the global water crisis was purely about scarcity. Earth's surface was mostly water, and the overwhelming majority was in the oceans, yet almost all drinking water still came from the tiny slice of accessible freshwater that existing systems were built to use. For him, this was "a technology gap" as much as a resource gap: "We have abundant water resources. We just have a technology gap in getting that water to people," he said.  Vital Lyfe's answer was a family of units that households, communities, or local institutions could own and operate themselves. Criss was candid that "decentralized" had become a buzzword but defined it clearly: "Decentralized means giving traditional centralized systems to individuals that can own and operate them themselves. That means that you have to make a product that is easy to operate, is affordable, and it is not reliant on traditional infrastructure," Criss said.  SpaceX reliability shaped the design: aggressively testing for corner cases like intermittent power and rough transport. "Reliability is a core part of our design. It's a core part of aerospace design. We put our products through the most rigorous reliability and qualification campaigns that we can even think of," Criss said.  The conversation did not shy away from hard economics. Desalination was often criticized as energy-hungry and expensive, a poor fit for low-income and humanitarian settings. Criss agreed there were trade-offs on energy use, flow rate and maintenance, but argued that the real barrier had been the upfront of capital cost and the way that locked solutions into government-scale projects. "If you look at traditional systems, they're extremely expensive to manufacture, produce, and maintain," he said.  Scaling that model forced hard questions about who these systems really served first. Vital Lyfe's business model borrowed from Starlink's tiered pricing: early units sold into affluent markets like maritime users and militaries subsidized cheaper models for humanitarian partners and Global South communities, Criss explained. The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid [https://www.developmentaid.org/]. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected  [https://linktr.ee/devaid_dialogues]

Fadi Bou Ali: Green and Blue Bonds Between Promise and Hard Reality

In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hisham-allam-inv/] interviewed Fadi Bou Ali [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fadi-bou-ali-00539b174/], a sustainable finance specialist working at the intersection of capital markets and climate solutions, for an in-depth look at how green and blue bonds are reshaping climate finance. Fadi, an expert within ABAAD - Resource Centre for Gender Equality [https://www.developmentaid.org/organizations/view/104142/abaad-resource-center-for-gender-equality], explains that green bonds and regular loans are “identical twins with different jobs”: structurally similar but governed by a legal contract that strictly earmarks money for climate-related projects rather than general spending. Blue bonds, he notes, are a subset of green bonds “where the money is earmarked for water,” financing marine conservation, sustainable fisheries, and wastewater treatment instead of roads or militaries.  Fadi walks listeners through how a country issues a blue bond, from building a credible framework and getting a robust second-party opinion to ringfencing funds in dedicated accounts and subjecting them to independent audits. He points to Poland’s early sovereign green bond as a success story, where proceeds went to sectors like sustainable agriculture, clean transport, and national parks, backed by strict exclusion criteria that “legally barred any of this money from funding fossil fuel power or nuclear energy.” At the same time, he warns that rapid growth—sustainable bonds now amount to trillions—does not guarantee real-world impact. “We are falling into the semantic nerves,” he says, using ever fancier labels without knowing “if we are going to harvest tangible results.”  The conversation tackles uncomfortable questions about scale, politics, and justice. Fadi is blunt: “I’m not optimistic,” arguing that market-based solutions alone cannot solve a crisis that demands a radical shift in mindset, especially in a world of polarization and rising climate denial. He highlights failures like supposedly “clean” hydropower that destroys river ecosystems and livelihoods, and the “bankable trap” that channels money into profitable projects while least developed countries struggle with capacity, higher borrowing costs, and weak institutional trust. For many in the Global South, he says, “they are paying market rates for saving the planet,” raising deep fairness concerns.  Looking ahead, Fadi sees the system slowly shifting toward sustainability-linked bonds that tie an issuer’s interest rate to clear, measurable KPIs so “the entire entity transforms, not just one department.” Real progress, he insists, means moving from counting outputs to tracking outcomes like tones of CO₂ avoided, increased fish biomass, or the number of endemic species protected. Yet he cautions that environmental payoffs “often lie beyond the timetable of the loan,” making it hard to align finance, politics, and climate timelines. This episode is a candid reminder that while green and blue bonds can be powerful tools, they only advance climate justice and resilience if backed by rigorous governance, honest metrics, and genuine participation from the communities who live with the consequences.  The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid [https://www.developmentaid.org/]. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected  [https://linktr.ee/devaid_dialogues]

NGOs: From Band-aids to Real Impact. Breaking Silos with NCA’s Linda Nordby

Every year, the World NGO Day is a moment to recognize the work nonprofits and community-based organizations do in some of the world’s toughest places—and to be honest about the pressures they face, from shrinking civic space to falling budgets and rising security risks. To mark the day, DevelopmentAid Dialogues [https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/podcasts] host Hisham Allam [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hisham-allam-inv/] speaks with Linda Nordby [https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-nordby-7b2217b/], Head of the Humanitarian Division at Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) [https://www.developmentaid.org/organizations/view/1433/norwegian-church-aid], about what it really means for an international NGO to work “together with local communities and local civil society” rather than directing everything from the head office.  For Nordby, this way of working “is part of our DNA,” not a new fashion. NCA’s aim is to tap into and strengthen “already existing networks or structures so that [they] become stronger and more resilient when a crisis hits,” instead of building parallel systems. In Sudan, that means combining humanitarian and development funding to support internally displaced people with cash, while also working with small-scale farmers and local markets so that “the local community can sort of sustain itself” after the emergency phase.  NCA’s dual mandate allows it to address “underlying vulnerabilities” and “immediate needs” at the same time, but it also exposes tensions that many NGOs recognize. Building “proper partnership” and trust with grassroots movements and local organizations takes time, especially in fragile settings, and Nordby is clear that there is a power imbalance due to funding and audit requirements. She notes that NCA is consulting partners on its partnership policy and collecting regular feedback on “how we’re doing on basically being a partner,” yet donors’ compliance demands still make it hard for many national actors to “stand on their own.”  Global aid cuts are tightening the screw further: 14 of 20 OECD DAC countries reduced aid in 2025, and efficiency gains “will not” compensate for all the losses. In response, NCA is trying to stay flexible on access, adjusting locations and approaches with partners rather than walking away when security or bureaucracy blocks the original plan.  Nordby’s message to smaller organizations on this World NGO Day is to “challenge international NGOs” and “stand your ground” so that partnership does not slide into pure service provision. Her final words are for frontline staff who are “often IDPs or affected themselves”: a mix of gratitude for holding communities together, and a promise that head office will keep trying to “make your life easier” rather than adding burdens.   The podcast is sponsored by DevelopmentAid [https://www.developmentaid.org/]. Procurement notices, funding and grants to opportunities, lists of potential partners, insights into market trends, databases of development professionals, webinars, latest news, and much more. Stay informed and connected. Subscribe and Stay Connected  [https://linktr.ee/devaid_dialogues]