As the era of abundant foreign aid comes to an end, developing countries are being forced to rethink how development is financed and delivered. In this episode of Let’s Talk Development, Dr. Umair Javed sits down with development anthropologist Dr. Muhammad Ali to unpack the changing global aid architecture, the politics behind shrinking donor support, and what these shifts mean for Pakistan. Together, they examine the promises and pitfalls of aid, its impact on state capacity and knowledge production, and what needs to be done to contend with this new era of dwindling aid.
Dr. Umair is an Associate Professor at the Mushtaq Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS). His research studies the politics of urban development and the informal economy in Pakistan, as well as forms of non-state and informal welfare across a range of contemporary Muslim societies . His work has been published in Studies in Comparative International Development, Development and Change, Antipode, IDS Bulletin, Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and Economic and Political Weekly. He has also authored book chapters on Pakistan’s political economy in edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press, Palgrave MacMillan, and Routledge. At LUMS, Dr Umair teaches courses in political economy, sociology, and international development. Outside of academia, he contributes a fortnightly political and social affairs column for Pakistan’s leading English-language daily, Dawn.
Dr. Ali is a development anthropologist with over two decades of experience working on socio-economic and political challenges with a range of stakeholders including multilateral and bilateral donors, think-tanks, government agencies, NGOs and community-based organizations. He has taught anthropology, international development, and South Asia-specific courses at universities in Australia, Pakistan and the United States. Currently, he lectures at Johns Hopkins University and is affiliated with the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. He also provides expert testimony in UK and US immigration courts for asylum seekers and writes a weekly column for the Express Tribune.