Post Aid World

In response to Louise Coventry’s article, “Cambodia’s NGO Sector Is Collapsing. Does It Matter?” Heike Löschmann examines what Cambodia stands to lose as international funding declines. Moving beyond the survival of individual organisations, she asks how independent civic functions, accumulated expertise and the capacity to defend rights can be sustained—and what responsibility international partners have for the transition.

Situating current developments within wider global debates on solidarity, aid retrenchment, and international cooperation, this contribution warns against simplistic celebrations of a “post-aid world.” It argues for defending rights-based and feminist approaches to international solidarity at a time of growing authoritarianism and fragmentation.