Kanni Wignaraja: “A Defense Budget Must Be Complemented With a Development Budget”

Ms. Wignaraja, for the first time in about 35 years, we are seeing a slowdown across all human development indicators worldwide. Why is this happening?

Development was badly hit by COVID and then it never really picked up after. Probably this absence of a bounce-back is now due to major conflicts and crises. And the climate shocks of course. If you put all of this together, it has depressed the rate of progress in human development.

What about the Asia-Pacific region?

Overall, the Asia-Pacific region is still doing better than many other regions, but that still has not been big enough to carry the whole momentum, due to protracted conflicts or instability in places like Afghanistanand Myanmar and the rapid transmission of shocks across regions. If this trend continues, global conflicts will cost the world economy 13 to 15 trillion US dollars.

Crises and conflicts, such as the war in Myanmar and the situation in Afghanistan, are unlikely to disappear anytime soon. So what can be done?

One of the toughest structural issues is the hardening of inequality. You see the wealth gap growing. You see the gender gap growing. This is evident in Asia as in other parts of the world. A key point is to use policy and investment levers to raise and sustain the middle classes everywhere, which in periods of destabilization are pushed into vulnerability and poverty. UNDP published a study about the disappearing middle class of Myanmar. There’s a protracted conflict behind that, resulting in a big loss of human development. Rebuilding a nation’s middle class takes a lot of time and effort to reinvest and recover lost ground.

Speaking of reinvestment, how does the US withdrawal from development and humanitarian aid affect your work?

The organizations most affected volume-wise are in the humanitarian field, where a lot of the US funding was directed at country level. The development system was affected in more specific areas. A good example is HIV and AIDS prevention in Africa, or demining work in the Mekong area, where the US presence is missing now. It really has left a gap.

Usually at this point, the conversation turns to the private sector and its role in development. What is your view on that?

You know, when the private sector gets involved, it doesn’t do so in the same way or to the same extent as states do. Frankly, I don’t see the private sector as a similar source of development funding. It plays a critical role and can play an even bigger one. I think the private sector’s main contribution should be to examine how they engage with development through their own supply chains and local market support. Can they produce more sustainably? Can they promote human rights and equality? Secondly, I think the exchange of skills and technology for mutual gain is of high value, particularly when working with local businesses and communities.

According to our public opinion poll, The Berlin Pulse, only 17% of Germans believe that Germany should increase its support for international institutions. The far-right AfD party in Germany argues that ‘charity begins at home’ and is against all development aid. To what extent can you understand that argument?

Well, you must try to understand it because people feel that way. You can’t dismiss that perception. Now, how do you work with that, and what are the arguments to counter it? I argue that global trends and global markets have moved beyond the point where either can function as an island unto itself. There are too many issues that don’t recognize borders. Take transnational crime, for example — it doesn’t stop at a border. For me, this is a good reason why multilateral platforms and international laws and conventions exist: as places where countries can come together to discuss, mediate, quarrel and move towards shared solutions.

Germany has reduced its development aid budget while increasing spending on defense. Are you disappointed by that decision?

Well, I’m disappointed that development budgets globally are going down. That is in no one’s self-interest. You can’t fight this battle with guns and drones only. You must invest in people’s well-being and their capabilities. Because the other thing that travels across borders is despair, anger and fear. A defense budget is necessary, but it must be complemented with a development budget that invests at home and outside – it is in our mutual interest to keep this world safe for all.

Do you talk to the security sector?

Yes, but maybe not enough. We must engage with the security sector. There is so much mutual interest because development investment brings stabilization, prosperity and opportunity, while reducing irregular migration and the spread of diseases and crimes across countries. Investing in development is the best way for us to address these structural deficits. The idea that one is soft human power and the other is hard military power belongs in the same category as the idea that it’s either growth or protecting the environment. We have learned that there is no contradiction here and the two must work hand-in-hand.

That’s a compelling argument. But do you feel that policymakers are listening?

You know, like most good arguments, you’ve got to keep repeating it. And it’s not one way – we must keep engaging and listening to each other.

For how long?

I hope not too long, because when we look at some of the development indicators, we don’t have the time. I don’t think we can afford to continue thinking and talking only within only in our own little boxes. I hope it doesn’t take too long for the penny to drop.

29.04.2026

In cooperation with Table.Media, The Berlin Pulse Express Edition combines the foreign policy attitudes of Germans with expectations of Germany from abroad.