Ask the Experts live session | From Aid to Trade: What the U.S. Strategic Pivot Means for Development Actors in 2026

The United States is undergoing one of the most significant shifts in its foreign assistance posture in decades, with aid budgets tightening and priorities moving toward trade-driven partnerships, investment diplomacy, and private sector-led development. The implications for development actors are profound and far-reaching.

Non-governmental organizations, multilateral agencies, consultancies, governments, and individual practitioners are now confronting a new set of urgent questions: How should development programs adapt to a commercial diplomacy framework? Can trade and investment instruments realistically fill gaps left by shrinking aid? Which sectors will be prioritized, and what happens to those that are not commercially viable? Where should NGOs and INGOs pivot across strategy, funding models, and partnerships to remain relevant?

To explore these questions, DevelopmentAid invites NGOs, consulting companies, multilateral institutions, government agencies, contractors, and individual consultants to join this Ask Me Anything- Ask the Experts live session: From Aid to Trade — What the U.S. Strategic Pivot Means for Development Actors in 2026, featuring George Ingram, whose career spans the U.S. Congress, USAID, and decades of development policy research and practice. The session will take place on April 16 at 4:00 PM (Brussels) / 10:00 AM (Washington, DC).

Ask Me Anything—Ask the Expert is a new interactive series designed to give development practitioners direct access to leading voices in the field. As part of our webinar programme, participants’ pre-submitted questions are the heart of the conversation. Drawing on his extensive experience, Mr. Ingram will provide practical insights and actionable perspectives grounded in decades of real decision-making at the highest levels of U.S. development policy.

Key Takeaways

• A clear understanding of how the U.S. shift from aid to trade is reshaping development priorities, financing models, and partnerships
• Practical guidance on how organisations can adapt across strategy, funding approaches, and partnerships to remain relevant
• Insight into which sectors and approaches are likely to gain traction and what this means for future opportunities and risks.

Featured Speaker

George Ingram
Senior Fellow Emeritus, Centre for Sustainable Development, Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution.

George Ingram brings more than five decades of hands-on experience in U.S. international development policy, with a career that has moved across Capitol Hill, the executive branch, and the non-profit sector.

George spent over twenty years as a senior staff member on the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, driving the legislative agenda on international economic and development issues and influencing the direction of U.S. development policy from within Congress. He subsequently moved to the executive branch, serving as principal deputy assistant administrator at USAID with oversight of U.S. assistance programs across the former Soviet Union.

Today, George holds the position of senior fellow emeritus at the Center for Sustainable Development within the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, actively contributing to the ongoing debate on how U.S. development policy must evolve.

George holds degrees from the University of North Carolina, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Host

Lydia Gichuki
Corporate writer at DevelopmentAid