2025 saw a massive drop in Official Development Assistance (ODA) of almost a quarter and the OECD projects a further drop of 6.9% in 2026. This will mark the third consecutive year of decline, bringing ODA to its lowest level since 2014.

Yet more challenges plague the ODA system than just declining investments. The whole system faces critiques from multiple sides. Some say it is an outdated colonial legacy that serves few in the Global Majority World. Many in Global Minority countries say funds could be better spent at home.

This summary document explores the following themes:

• What would a system that is more democratic, more equal, and more effective look like (with Global Majority governments setting the agenda)?
• How can those affected by core challenges drive the implementation of solutions?
• How do we engage multiple instruments beyond ODA, including trade, investment, private finance, to achieve a more coherent system?
• How can the multilateral system be rebuilt for our current era?
• How can new forms of financing be mobilized?

The first half of 2026 has been characterized by numerous events of differing scope and size, with one key recurrent theme – what comes next for the feminist funding ecosystem in the face of shifting geopolitical and financing trends. Following events such as the Commission on the Status of Women, the Wilton Park Forum on Financing and Inequality, the Skoll World Forum, Women Deliver, the Fifth Feminist Foreign Policy Ministerial, the Global Partnerships Conference, and many others, the Alliance for Feminist Movements (AFM) hosted a webinar asking panelists to make sense of these conversations, draw out key threads woven across these events, and chart a way forward. Through a series of introspective and reflective dyads our panelists explored the overarching trends across the feminist funding ecosystem, what these shifts mean for what can and should be salvaged, and what needs to be built as we imagine new futures.