Aid sector must adapt or die, warns former Oxfam chief Halima Begum

The global aid sector is nearing breaking point, according to Halima Begum, a charity executive who has served as chief executive of Oxfam, Action Aid and the Runnymede Trust, as the UK government-sponsored Global Partnerships conference convened in London this week against a backdrop of high living costs, reduced aid budgets and oil tankers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.

Begum argued that the international charity network propping up the broken aid system is both under strain and part of the problem, describing it as unable to adapt to the times and increasingly unfit for purpose.

For years, she wrote, large international charities have championed localisation of aid, expressing collective commitment to transformation and decolonisation, but have failed to achieve it.

Despite being some of the strongest voices calling for change, these organisations remain structurally resistant to evolution from within, not necessarily from bad intent but because large institutions are designed to sustain themselves, Begum said.

Power, funding and decision-making remain concentrated among staff and boards far removed from the grassroots, creating a fundamental contradiction: the very organisations advocating for change are often the least able to deliver, and logical questions arise that the sector is not prepared to answer, she argued.

Begum questioned whether it is morally right for a large UK-based charity to spend £120m a year on fundraising primarily to generate and support jobs in the UK, instead of giving to organisations under national leadership working in Sudan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The public expect their donations to go directly to needs at the grassroots or on the frontline, Begum wrote, noting that she discussed this issue last year on a panel with other international NGO leaders at a humanitarian leadership conference in Doha.

Despite visible commitments to equitable partnerships, she said that international structures remain so bureaucratically layered – from head offices to regional hubs – that they often unintentionally drown out local voices, and she favors drastically reducing large infrastructure to allow national civil society, particularly feminist and grassroots organisations, to shape the agenda.

Large international charities and agencies should step back, redirect unrestricted funds and let civil society lead, Begum wrote, adding that current efforts to transform big organisations from within are not going to work.

As resources shrink, more is absorbed by the overcrowded intermediary system formed by leading international charities, and less support reaches frontline communities, she said, urging that power be stopped from defaulting to structures intent on hoarding it.

Not all these organisations should continue to play the same role they do today, Begum argued; some may transition, merge, shrink or step aside, while others could demonstrate real change and remain relevant, but the system cannot be preserved in its current form.

She called for a new model of giving that channels resources directly to local and national actors, builds trust and solidarity rather than control-heavy compliance, and redefines accountability around communities, not intermediaries.

Begum wrote that big aid charities need to learn to let go and accept that those closest to a problem are often best placed to act toward effective resolution.

This is not about abandoning partnership, she said, but about redesigning it; if the sector continues to invest in maintaining the existing system, it will reproduce limitations, and the question is no longer whether change is needed but whether leaders are prepared to let go of the structures that prevent it.

She proposed a test: can organisations show that at least 90% of their funding flows directly to locally led organisations with real decision-making force behind local leaders? If not, they are propping up a system that benefits elites, not the grassroots.

This is not about punishing, Begum said, but about letting go of expensive dinosaurs, noting the remarkable volume of commentary from NGO leaders defending their continued centrality to a last-century aid model.

Much of it feels less like thoughtful reflection than self-preservation masquerading as strategic insight, she wrote, adding that at a time of shrinking aid, maintaining large headquarters, layered management and expensive overheads is hard to defend when a diminishing share of funds reaches frontline communities.

Begum said that organisations that can meet the bar by shifting funding, devolving authority and rethinking their role should be supported, while those that cannot must not be the default channel for resources; in a constrained environment, the sector cannot afford to support both transformation and inertia.

Halima Begum is a charity executive who has been chief executive of Oxfam, Action Aid and the Runnymede Trust.