Dhaka, March 7 -- Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and froze foreign aid, calling it wasteful and fraudulent. The United Kingdom recently followed suit, trading off its international-aid budget for higher defense spending.

Advocates of official development assistance (ODA) rightly argue that it saves lives and serves national interests. But that does not change the fact that the system has been hemorrhaging credibility and resources for years and lacks a convincing narrative.The upcoming United Nations Conference on Financing for Development, ...