A year after Elon Musk and Donald Trump destroyed USAID, where is development today? The US took $68 billion dollars out of the global development budget last year. Other countries are slashing their budgets too. Now what?

If global development was about positioning the US as a strategic ally across the globe, it is now toast. But if development can continue to be more than political positioning, and return to its purpose of alleviating poverty, building secure environments and promoting democracy, then we may still be in business. To get a sense of how this can work, we invite Dr. Kate Schecter to join us this week.

Kate Schecter has witnessed and participated in international development for decades. For the past decade, Kate has served as CEO of World Neighbors, an international NGO with projects in 14 low-income countries. These include Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti, Tanzania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, India and Nepal. Next April World Neighbors, which has always received near all its funding from private sources, will celebrate its 75th anniversary. The Oklahoma City-based organization and its community-based savings and credit and climate resilience model have survived many changes in national and international policies.

Kate recently returned from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh India, where she visited thriving economic development projects based on the needs and skills of local communities.