They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, aid organizations certainly need to get inventive nowadays to survive — and consolidating forces may be one way to do it.
Also in today’s edition: UNAIDS faces up to a grim future, and philanthropy contends with politics.
+ The White House has made its stance clear: Countries must take on more responsibility for their own HIV programs. But what should a responsible transition look like — and can the U.S. flagship HIV initiative PEPFAR deliver results with a tighter budget? Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET (4 p.m. CET) to discuss the future of PEPFAR with leading experts. Save your spot now.
All together now
Mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, are not always easy to pull off. But as more and more organizations battle for survival in this new era of aid cuts, joining forces is looking more appealing.
But before diving in, companies need to assess the big picture, according to executives of for-profit implementers who spoke at a recent Devex Pro briefing to offer tips on M&A strategies.
First, you need to figure out what exactly that strategy is, said Kathleen Flanagan, president and CEO of Abt Global.
“I think the number one thing about what you do … is: What is your strategy as an organization? Are you trying to buy client access? Are you trying to deepen or buy a capability? Are you just trying to get bigger [and] scale with a financial return? All three is the trifecta, obviously,” she said. “So I think it starts with your leadership team taking a step back and saying, ‘What are we trying to achieve here?’”
Flanagan also pointed out that mergers and acquisitions aren’t the only options. For instance, joint ventures — where two or more parties pool their resources and share risks in pursuit of a common goal — are another avenue.
“One of the things that we've done over the last couple of years is really put together the spectrum of relationships with others that doesn't have to be the full-blown marriage where you're acquiring and trying to integrate,” Flanagan said. “Acquiring and integration are incredibly difficult under the best of circumstances.”
Despite the difficulties, M&As may be a viable path forward — even if that path is clouded by uncertainty.
“Where there is change, there is always opportunity for organizations,” said Christopher Hirst, former CEO of Palladium. “It can help organizations make step changes and get through some of the malaise or bureaucracy that they build up amongst themselves. And so with all the tragedy and disappointment that's going on with the industry … what can you do to come out of this better as an organization?”
Watch: Mergers and acquisitions take on added importance in wake of aid cuts (Pro)
More reading: Why an increasing number of charities are deciding to merge (Pro)
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Scaling back
Drastic decreases in donor funding are hitting UNAIDS hard, and may even force the U.N. agency to shut its doors by 2030, according to a report that’s set to be discussed by the organization’s board next week.
While it’s not a done deal, it’s also not a good sign.
In the face of deep cuts, UNAIDS is embracing a new operating model — euphemistically described as “agile and flexible to absorb further change” — that’s expected to take effect by January 2026.
During this time, the UNAIDS secretariat will operate with less than half the staff it has now, downsize its country offices, and deprioritize a significant number of activities, writes my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo, who obtained a detailed breakdown showing that the majority of staff will be working in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Bangkok, and Bonn, with only 20 people left in Geneva.
But by the end of 2027, UNAIDS is expected to undergo another major transformation, one that could lead to the closure of its secretariat altogether by 2030.
It all comes as cuts endanger the stunning progress made in combating HIV/AIDS over the last 20 years.
A representative of the UNAIDS Staff Association tells Jenny that while there’s still a lot to be done to end AIDS in countries, “it is unfortunate to see suggestions of [the] Secretariat winding up coming from co-sponsors and development partners who had come together to form this brilliantly successful program before reaching [the] finishing line.”
Read: Will UNAIDS sunset by 2030?
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Follow the money
Philanthropic giving is not free from politics. The U.S. Congress is currently debating a proposed tax hike on foundations as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — a proposal, critics say, aimed at punishing what the president sees as progressive organizations.
But philanthropy was rife with political interference long before then — to a significant degree, at least according to Indiana University’s recently released Global Philanthropy Environment Index 2025, a sweeping analysis of the legal, political, and economic conditions for philanthropy across 95 economies.
Una Osili, co-author of the report, said she was initially surprised by research showing that the extent to which philanthropy flourishes or not is determined in large part by political forces.
Prior to the previous report’s release in 2022, Osili said she and her team assumed that giving conditions would be positively correlated with economic growth. If cross-border philanthropy was constrained, it was thought to be an unintended consequence of legislation aimed at deterring money laundering and terrorism, writes Lauren Evans for Devex.
Now, Osili said, it’s understood that the barriers are purposeful — the product of laws specifically aimed at limiting charitable transactions from other countries. “Foreign agent” laws were first implemented by Russia in 2012 and have since proliferated across other countries such as Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
In total, around 40% of the economies studied have what are considered “restrictive” philanthropic environments, Lauren writes.
It’s more disheartening news in a climate where aid money is getting scarcer and scarcer. As Osili pointed out, these restrictions are happening at “the very time where we have this increase in need for support and humanitarian assistance.”
Read: How restrictive laws and hostile politics harm global philanthropy
Related opinion: Trump attack on US foundations would devastate global human rights
ITU, Brute?
The U.S. State Department announced yesterday it supports the reelection of Doreen Bogdan-Martin as secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union, signaling a desire for continuity at the U.N. agency responsible for setting global telecommunications and digital standards.
Bogdan-Martin, who was nominated in 2022 by the Biden administration to lead ITU, will conclude a four-year term at the helm of the Geneva-based agency at the end of 2026. If she prevails in the ITU leadership elections — scheduled for November 2026 at a conference in Doha, Qatar — she would serve out a second four-year term starting in January 2027.
Bogdan-Martin is the first woman to lead ITU since its founding in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union — the oldest U.N. agency — to facilitate cross-border telecommunications traffic.
ITU has served as an obscure battleground in the big power struggle for influence over global communications, pitting the U.S. against China and Russia, which sought a stronger role for governments in managing communications across the internet, my colleague Colum Lynch tells me. Before Bogdan-Martin’s election, ITU was led for eight years by a Chinese national, Houlin Zhao, and her main challenger for the top job was Rashid Ismailov, a former deputy minister of Russia’s communications ministry and a former executive at the Chinese telecom company, Huawei.
The U.S. support for Bogdan-Martin — and ITU — is noteworthy at a time when the Trump administration has issued scathing criticism of the United Nations and outlined plans to impose billions of dollars in funding cuts to the world body.
“At a time when global networks and digital technologies are increasingly impacting the global economy, ITU needs the right leadership,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Bogdan-Martin has delivered principled, results-driven leadership grounded in transparency, accountability, and technical excellence. Under her guidance, the ITU has helped develop global tech standards, improved oversight, increased ITU-private sector partnerships, and worked toward secure digital connectivity.”
In other news
India has been accused of illegally deporting Indian Muslims to Bangladesh at gunpoint, with thousands rounded up by police in recent weeks. [The Guardian]
More than 60 leading climate scientists warn that the world has only three years left to avoid breaching the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit at current carbon dioxide emission levels. [BBC]
The Saudi Fund for Development is providing $2.75 million to create safe learning spaces for 4,000 children in western Afghanistan, where 120 public schools were destroyed by earthquakes in October 2023. [UNICEF]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
