THE FUTURE OF DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IN SOUTH ASIA - Join the Atlantic Council’s Future of Emerging Economies project for a virtual discussion on how foreign assistance is changing in South Asia and the implications and opportunities for governments there.

The global foreign assistance landscape is experiencing major shifts. In South Asia, Western bilateral aid is declining, multilateral development bank financing is increasing, and non-Western bilateral and philanthropic flows are growing steadily. The development model is evolving from grant-based Western aid toward loan-based multilateral and non-Western financing.

Two new Atlantic Council reports focus on how these changes are playing out in Pakistan and Bangladesh—the world’s fifth and eighth most populous countries, respectively, and traditionally two of the largest overseas development assistance (ODA) recipient countries in Asia. The reports’ authors and other experts will discuss the reports’ key findings and the options policymakers in Islamabad and Dhaka have to address new ODA realities.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE - 11/12/2026