A New Paradigm for Aid
In the wake of the 2025 collapse of USAID and the sharpest UK aid cuts in history, The Policy Practice Director Neil McCulloch is calling for a bold shift in how international aid is conceived and delivered. Current debates on how to restructure aid focus on how to “do more with less” e.g. by focussing on multilateral institutions, fragile states, humanitarian aid, or soft power. Instead, Neil proposes a “transformational” approach to aid that prioritises coalitions of domestic changemakers. Drawing on political economy analysis, McCulloch advocates identifying and supporting local actors with the potential to drive meaningful reform in their own societies. This means moving away from imposing external solutions and towards a model of adaptive, low-cost, and politically informed engagement.
His model emphasises experimentation, local ownership, and a blending of development, diplomacy, and security tools to support sustainable change. McCulloch suggests that the UK and US aid sector’s recent dismantling could open the door for this leaner, more effective approach—one rooted in how real development has historically occurred. The blog calls for a reimagining of aid as a long-term, locally driven process, not just a transaction for measurable results.
This post was originally published on the LSE Activism, Influence and Change Programme blog here.
Why energy security starts in the kitchen
With global energy markets reeling from geopolitical chaos, Indonesia’s USD 4.7 billion liquid petroleum gas subsidy is no longer just a fiscal burden but a severe economic vulnerability. In this blog (which was published as an Op-Ed for Jakarta Post), TPP Director Neil McCulloch argues that the government must finally grasp the nettle of subsidy reform.
The Political Economy of Gender and Energy
As part of the webinar series looking at different aspects of the energy transition from a political economy perspective, the ENERGIA international network on gender and sustainable energy hosted the third webinar on development partners' changed political priorities regarding gender and social inclusion (GESI) and the strategies that practitioners have used to embed GESI within national energy institutions.
The Political Economy of Carbon Pricing
As part of the webinar series looking at different aspects of the energy transition from a political economy perspective, the International Institute for Sustainable Development hosted the second webinar looking at why carbon pricing remains so politically difficult and what kinds of strategies have been most effective in different contexts.