A fragmenting world order adds to the challenges of taking collective action on issues central to ODI Global’s mission, including artificial intelligence, climate change, trade and international development. It also places additional pressure on public finances at a time when global public debt is more than US$100 trillion and fiscal institutions are under stain.
Against this backdrop, we highlight some issues that will be on the radar for our public finance experts this year.
Reimagining public finance and Public Financial Management reform
As countries face growing fiscal pressures and the rise of populist politics, there has been no shortage of ideas on how to strengthen public finances and fiscal institutions. In 2025, the IMF’s Fiscal Monitor proposed “Spending Smarter” and the OECD published a major report on “Spending Better”. There was an EY-OMFIF report on The Future of Public Money and a new book on Contemporary Issues and Challenges in Public Financial Management which updates the wave of Public Financial Management (PFM) handbooks published after the Global Financial Crisis.
ODI Global was involved in many of these projects, and with the World Bank’s “Reimagining Public Finance” initiative, which seeks to strengthen the links between PFM reforms and development outcomes. The draft synthesis report sparked both enthusiasm and debate, which is an important reminder that there is still a lot of work to do to build consensus on changes to international norms and approaches to PFM support. In 2026, we will reflect on the common themes emerging from this body of work (sign up to our newsletters below to stay up to date).
How can countries build fiscal and economic resilience?
One concept that is appearing with increasing frequency is “resilience”, as countries face a growing number of supply shocks. With 52 mentions of the term, Uganda’s new PFM reform strategy illustrates how the concept is resonating with finance ministries. Our 2025 Public Finance Conference hosted over 100 participants to deliberate on the practical implications of “building resilient futures”. We concluded that countries need to be able to respond rapidly to shocks as they take steps to reduce longer-term vulnerabilities.
In 2025, much of our work focused on strengthening short-term responses, including through shock-responsive social protection. We proposed a new virtual mechanism for coordinating fragmented international financing for social protection, explored the role of philanthropies and examined how disaster risk financing can be integrated into PFM systems in the Sahel. Final publications from this work will be released soon.
In 2026, our focus will increasingly turn to the longer-term dimensions of resilience, including the role of fiscal frameworks for anchoring more resilient economies. We will be summarising lessons for using fiscal policies to promote a net-zero, nature-positive economy as part of the Global Environment Facility Accelerator. We will also continue our analysis of the IMF’s Resilience and Stability Facility, which could lend up to $27 billion to eligible countries – roughly three times the amount ($9.3 billion) pledged to the Green Climate Fund for its next four-year period.
Understanding and managing national vulnerabilities to aid cuts
Official development assistance (ODA) from the traditional OECD donors is facing steep cuts. As the world’s largest donor, the United States’ decision to dismantle USAID and cut back ODA has been particularly significant, but it reflects a broader trend. The OECD has projected that France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States all reduced ODA for the past two consecutive years – the first time this has happened.
Many African governments responded proactively to the aid cuts, and directed more domestic resources to health spending in particular. Now governments must prepare for further uncertainty as major donor countries review their priorities for ODA, climate finance and preferential trading arrangements. To complement our platform for Donors in a Post-Aid World, this year we will work with finance ministries and their partners to identify, quantify and manage the risks of future aid cuts and the broader changes to international cooperation.
The 2026 Public Finance Conference will be on health spending
As countries take on greater responsibility for financing and delivering health services, they will need stronger systems to ensure public money is used effectively.
In December 2025, the Universal Health Coverage High-level Forum emphasised the importance of close collaboration between ministries of finance and ministries of health to improve the efficiency and equity of health spending. Our recent report, What Can a Ministry of Finance Do to Improve Health Spending?, sets out ten practical ways finance and health ministries can collaborate to improve efficiency and equity.
We will continue this line of work, building up to our 2026 Public Finance Conference, which will focus on health spending. We will be researching funding flows to frontline facilities, the capacity of planning and finance units in health ministries, and budgeting for subnational health services.