With four years remaining until 2030, financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) collapsed at precisely the moment it was meant to expand. Official development assistance fell by almost a quarter in 2025 – the largest annual drop on record – leaving it at 0.26 per cent of donors combined national income, against the 0.7 per cent commitment enshrined in the 2030 Agenda itself.
Core contributions to the UN system fell sharply, and bilateral aid to least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa were cut by about a quarter, with further reductions expected in 2026 (OECD, 2026).
These cuts hit hardest where SDG gaps are largest and domestic budgets are weakest. The aid shock has effectively reversed the Agenda’s core promise to prioritise those furthest behind.
A redistribution of authority
At the same time, the figures alone hide a deeper shift. Who funds development is now closely tied to who development actors answer to – and who gets to define what “development” is. The end of the traditional donor era is not just a fiscal event; it is also a redistribution of authority, with major political and democratic implications.
This event therefore brings together three usually separate debates: the measurable consequences of the aid shock for the SDGs; democratic accountability in a period of both aid withdrawal and autocratization; and the exercise of African and Southern agency in a world order whose rules are being renegotiated.
This event is hosted by the Oslo SDG Initiative, Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo, in partnership with the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence on the Politics of Sustainable Development.
Program:
Registration is open from 08:30.
09.00: Opening session
Welcome and framing
- Ragnhild Hennum, Rector at the University of Oslo
- Professors Dan Banik and Tore Rem, Centre for Global Sustainability, University of Oslo; Africa-Europe CoRE
Opening keynotes: Whose development, whose voice?
- Delores Kotze, Ambassador of South Africa
- Åsmund Grøver Aukrust, Minister of International Development
09.45: Panel 1: From Budget Lines to Body Counts: Tracing Aid Cuts through the SDGs
Moderator:
- Professor Dan Banik (GLOBE, UiO)
Panellists:
- Stine Nicoline Kleven Horn (NORAD)
- Professor Happy Kayuni (University of Malawi)
- Anne Marie Helland (PwC Norway)
- Gina Ekholt (Forum for utvikling og miljø)
- Professor Desmond McNeill (GLOBE, UiO)
10.55: Panel 2: Accountable to whom? Taxation, Trust and the Democratic Politics of Self-Reliance
Moderator:
- Dr. Boniface Dulani (Afrobarometer and University of Malawi)
Panellists:
- Trine Østereng (Agenda)
- Dr. Liv Tørres (LO)
- Kathrine Raadim (Norad)
- Henriette Killi Westhrin (Redd Barna)
- Ingrid Hoem Sjursen (CMI)
Lunch is served at 11:55
12.30: Welcome
Welcome:
- Zhou Jingxing, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China
- Professor Maano Ramutsindela (University of Pretoria and University of Cape Town)
- Professor Dan Banik (GLOBE, UiO)
12.50: Panel 3: Legitimacy from Within: Governance for Sustainable Development in Africa
Moderator:
- Dr. Roukaya Kassenally (University of Mauritius)
Panellists:
- Prof. Michael Chasukwa (University of Malawi)
- Dr. Hafte Gebrihet (GLOBE, UiO)
- Enja Sæthren (Scatec)
- Torben Bjørke-Henriksen (Civita)
- Dr Ramola Ramtohul, (University of Mauritius)
13.50: Panel 4: Whose Rules? The Global South, Technology and the New World Order
Moderator:
- Professor Benedicte Bull (GLOBE, UiO)
Panellists:
- Dr Jon Harald Sande Lie (NUPI)
- Dr. Boniface Dulani (Afrobarometer and University of Malawi)
- Dr. Ilaria Carrozza (PRIO)
- Professor Dan Banik (GLOBE, UiO)
14.50: Closing remarks
- Professor Helge Jordheim (GLOBE, UiO)
Participate
The event is free and open to all. Sign up via the link below.
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