The launch of the “Future of Development Cooperation Coalition” led by Professor Yemi Osibajo – Nigeria’s former Vice President – is a welcome step for a sector that has struggled for decades to match ambition with the realities on the ground. The humanitarian and development fields have operated in parallel for far too long, each with its own logic, incentives, and funding streams. Yet the people it serves do not live their lives in neat compartments. Their daily realities cut across crisis response, economic survival, social protection, and long term opportunity. A coalition that brings together leaders from government, finance, business, technology, humanitarian action, and civil society is exactly the kind of configuration the moment demands.
Aid saves lives, and that will always matter. But no country has ever built lasting prosperity on aid. Development takes productive economies, functioning markets, and the political space to make long term decisions. Those outcomes depend on trade, investment, industrial policy, and the ability of countries to mobilise their own resources. Trade in particular remains one of the most powerful levers for structural transformation. It is how countries scale industries, create jobs, and integrate into global value chains. Any serious conversation about development cooperation must place trade at the centre, not at the margins.
We see this clearly in the rise of digital public infrastructure across several regions. When countries build systems that allow small firms to transact, access credit, and participate in markets, the impact goes far beyond any single project. It shows what becomes possible when humanitarian needs, economic policy, and technology are treated as parts of the same ecosystem rather than separate worlds. This is the kind of joined up thinking that strengthens productive capacity and expands market access in ways that aid alone cannot achieve.
This is why the diversity of this Coalition matters. You have people who understand macroeconomic constraints from the inside. People who have built digital public infrastructure at scale. People who have shaped climate finance. People who have run humanitarian operations in the toughest environments. People who know how private capital behaves, and how public institutions respond under pressure. When these perspectives sit together, the conversation shifts from abstract ideals to the real political economy of reform, resilience, and long term investment.
David Miliband’s reminder about inclusion and life saving interventions is important. Too many communities still live one shock away from disaster. But the work cannot stop at emergency response. The real test is that development cooperation must help countries build resilience, expand economic opportunity, and strengthen the institutions that allow societies to withstand pressure. That is where the system has often fallen short, and where this Coalition has the chance to push the debate in a more honest direction.
From an African perspective, the timing is right. Countries are pushing ahead with regional integration, industrialisation, digital transformation, and new forms of public private collaboration. They are also confronting the political realities of limited fiscal space and global rules that do not always work in their favour. Situating this Coalition within these realities is not about narrowing its scope. It is about grounding its work in the lived experience of regions that carry both the weight and burden of global shocks and the promise of long term transformation.
But the Coalition must go further. It must break down the silos that have defined the sector for too long. Humanitarian actors cannot operate as if development is someone else’s job. Development actors cannot pretend that fragility and crisis are temporary disruptions. And economic planners cannot design policies in isolation from the social and political pressures that shape how people actually live. A holistic approach to humanitarian and development cooperation is no longer optional. It is the only way to respond to the complexity of today’s challenges.
Welcoming this Coalition is not about celebrating another initiative. It is about recognising a configuration of leadership that can help move the global conversation toward something more grounded, more realistic, and more useful for the people who live with the consequences of these decisions. The opportunity is real, and what happens next will depend on whether this group is willing to work in a way that reflects the complexity of the world it hopes to influence.
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Dr. Wale Osofisan, PhD, is a seasoned governance strategist and policy analyst with over 23 years of experience advancing African-led, evidence-based solutions to political transitions, humanitarian crises and development challenges.
