In Pursuit of Development Debt, development finance, and global agency | David McNair
Feb 18, 2026
David McNair, Executive Director of ONE.org and veteran development campaigner, reflects on activism amid overlapping crises. He discusses rising African agency and local solutions. He traces long-term idea-shaping strategies, reforming global financial rules, debt distress drivers, and ways to mobilize political support for fairer finance.
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Shape Culture To Unlock Policy
- Policy is downstream from politics and politics is shaped by culture that can be deliberately influenced.
- David McNair argues activists must work upstream to shape thought leadership and the cultural environment for durable policy change.
Mobilize The Centre Through Local Action
- Mobilize the political centre by connecting local actions to global goals and creating agency.
- Ask people to protect local assets they love so grassroots work ladders up to international change.
South-Led G20 Delivered Concrete Finance Wins
- Global South G20 presidencies have pushed technical reforms that unlocked significant MDB lending headroom.
- McNair credits those presidencies with creating roughly $400 billion of additional low-cost lending capacity.