Big Aid is Over. We need to design for what African governments can do—and will pay for.

We didn’t look for it, and we sure don’t condone how it happened, but the era of Big Aid is over. We always knew governments had to be the doers at scale. Now it’s clear they have to be the payers too. Scale-obsessed as ever, we’re thinking about this new world in three ways: what you do, where you do it, and how you go about it. Kevin’s latest in SSIR looks for glimmers of optimism post-debacle. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/big-aid-is-over

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If you liked Kevin’s “Big Aid is Over” piece, this conversation goes deeper and doesn’t pull any punches. Kevin and Raj from Devex get into:

• Why “cost-effective” isn’t good enough
• What it really takes to scale through government
• The end of Big Aid — and why it might lead to less excuses
• Why philanthropy can be so lame
• Why potential—not need—should drive decisions

They covered a lot of ground, and it’s weirdly hopeful. Perfect to listen to while bathing your cat or otherwise avoiding your email.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNQekqQeR6o&ab_channel=Devex

How NGOs Can Act as Learning Labs for Government

Jennifer Schechter, Emily Bensen, and N'Toumbi Tiguida Sissoko at Integrate Health capture the spirit and methods of true government partnership. Their deceptively simple methodology—“Chunk it. Cost it. Test it”—is practical gold for any NGO who wants government to be the doer-at-scale. 

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ngos-government-partnership-models-scaling#

OK, so this sucks…

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But maybe…

Taken from “Emigration from Africa will change the world”

Radical Simplification: A Practical Way to Get More Out of Limited Foreign Assistance Budgets

Rachel Glennerster and Siddhartha Haria argue that remaining Big Aid dollars should target fewer, simpler, highly cost-effective interventions, at large scale, in fewer countries—and pay a lot more attention to outcomes. It’s good advice for philanthropy, too. 

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/radical-simplification-practical-way-get-more-out-limited-foreign-assistance-budgets

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A/B Testing for the Social Sector

We’re way more comfortable taking a risk on an organization that is constantly iterating—experimenting to get better. The Agency Fund is doing awesome work on “the learning organization.” This piece is on A/B testing, something that is hugely important in tech but remains rare among NGOs and government programs. This piece and video highlights how Rocket Learning uses lean, rapid experiments to test their model. It demystifies how to actually do A/B testing in the social sector. Every organization needs to be doing this stuff.

https://theagencyfund.substack.com/p/ab-testing-for-the-social-sector

Planning to conduct A/B tests on your social sector program?

We hope the above article left you stoked about the potential of A/B testing. Good. IDInsight wants to make sure you get the most of your new-found enthusiasm and avoid all-too-common mistakes.  

https://www.idinsight.org/article/planning-to-conduct-a-b-tests-on-your-social-sector-program/

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Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide

You’re using AI. Everybody is using AI. Increasingly, it isn't about the best model, it is about the best overall system for most people. This is the most useful guide we’ve read on how to pick between the top 3. 

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/using-ai-right-now-a-quick-guide

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While "lifetime expected consumption potential" doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as “$2 dollars per day”, it does a better job of highlighting the enormous gap between rich and poor globally. H/T Global Prosperity Institute

The Old Model of Billionaire Philanthropy Is Ending

Andreessen: “Technological innovation in a market system is inherently philanthropic, by a 50:1 ratio. Who gets more value from a new technology, the single company that makes it, or the millions or billions of people who use it to improve their lives? QED.”

Gates: “When a kid gets diarrhea, there’s no website that relieves that.” 

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-05-16/who-will-start-the-next-bill-gates-foundation-not-bezos-or-andreessen?srnd=homepage-americas&embedded-checkout=true&sref=zVYYYI5e

And Finally…

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