‘Risk is a core part of how you evaluate anything, but we do not really talk about it in the context of aid even though aid is used in some of the riskiest environments.’

In this episode of the London Political Podcast, Manas Chawla speaks with the Executive Director for Global Policy at the ONE Campaign David McNair. During their fascinating conversation, David shares with Manas his views on the biggest challenges that developing regions of the world are faced with when tackling corruption and discusses the limited reference to risk in conversations about aid. They also talk about the broader structural evolutions that are causing African countries to view the Western paternalistic approach to aid as obsolete and, subsequently, are pushing them towards strengthening ties with other global powers such as China.

David is the Executive Director for Global Policy at the ONE Campaign, a non-profit organisation that aims to put an end to extreme poverty and preventable disease by mounting grass root campaigns and lobbying world leaders. David ensures that the campaigns run by the charity are grounded in strong and reliable evidence. He has equally played a crucial role in mounting leading policies and campaigns aimed at tackling corruption, such as the charity’s Trillion Dollar Scandal campaign. David is also a Council Member at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Non-Resident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 2012 he was named one of the ninety-nine top foreign policy leaders under 33.