The world’s aid bill has gone into reverse
Foreign aid fell sharply in 2025. America made the biggest cut, but the more revealing story is how widely the retrenchment spread.
Development · · VDI+
Dispatches
Browse every VDI Global dispatch: charts, models and analysis across politics, economies, energy, development, technology and cities.
Quickmart to Sell 57% Stake on NSE
Quickmart has quadrupled its profit margin, paid out more than it earned and is betting on a growth rebound.
Economy ·
The billion credits not retired
The world's six main offset registries have issued 2.65bn carbon credits in thirty years. Buyers have used 1.56bn of them.
Energy & Climate · · VDI+
Can a Divided Opposition Hand the Incumbent the Win? 🗳️
President Ruto holds the largest single share of the vote — but is a runoff on the cards, or can the opposition unite?
Politics · · VDI+
Kenya’s Largest Political Party.
Over 7.7 million registered Kenyans didn't vote in 2022 — more than Ruto's 7.2m votes or Raila's 6.9m.
Politics · · VDI+
Kenya’s banks don’t merge. They get bought.
Three decades of deals show a sector that has swapped marriages for takeovers. Even the bank born of the last merger is now up for sale.
Economy · · VDI+
The AI adoption curve is running out of road
Almost nine in ten companies now report using AI. The more interesting question is what that number will mean when nearly everyone says yes.
Technology ·
The AI Spending Shift
Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI among U.S. businesses paying for AI, ending three years of single-vendor dominance. And almost none of that growth came at OpenAI’s expense.
Technology ·
Every paycheck has three jobs.
One rule splits take-home pay into fixed shares for needs, wants, and the future — the hard part isn't the math.
Economy ·
Burundi’s Migration: From Where to Where
383,000 people living in Burundi were born elsewhere, while 580,000 people born in Burundi live abroad — a gap of nearly 200,000.
Cities & People ·
The Boy from Zwide Now Stands Alone
Siya Kolisi’s 55 Test wins make him the most successful Springbok captain by wins. But behind the record is a 13-year journey that reshaped what South African rugby leadership could look like.
Cities & People ·
The Biases Shaping Kenyan Politics
Mental shortcuts quietly decide what Kenyans believe about their leaders — and not one of them needs a politician to say a false word.
Politics ·
SHA: Kenya’s Route to Universal Healthcare?
A year after retiring NHIF, Kenya's new health insurer is collecting less from members and paying out far more in claims. The maths behind universal coverage is not yet adding up.
Development ·
The Fare Trap
A minimum fare is supposed to be a rare policy win — better pay for drivers, no losers. Nairobi's commuters don't see it that way.
Economy ·
The World’s Largest Tea Producers
Tea is the world’s most-consumed drink after water, with global production reaching 7.05 million metric tons in 2024. That was nearly double the amount produced 20 years earlier.
Economy ·
Devolution Opening Up ?
Four years ago, most Kenyan counties kept more of their budgets hidden than public. In 2025, the opposite is true — but a document uploaded is not yet a document understood.
Politics ·
Africa's Most Remittance-Dependent Economies (2024) 💸
Money sent home by migrants rarely makes front-page economic headlines. Yet for millions of families across Africa, these quiet transfers—often sent in modest.
Economy ·
The Great Oil Spill Decline: How Tanker Disasters Became Rare 🛢️
In the 1970s , the global oil trade had a dirty secret—literally. Oil tankers, the massive ships carrying crude across oceans, spilled oil with alarming regular
Energy & Climate ·
Who Really Funds Foreign Aid ?
Foreign aid plays a vital role in providing life-saving support to millions of people around the world. Find out who funds foreign aid.
Development ·
💡 Konza Technopolis: From Vision to Revenue Reality
In 2024, Konza Cloud emerged as the backbone of revenue, generating 152 million and contributing 60% of the total—making it the single largest driver of Konza Technopolis' earnings.
Technology ·
Shifting Birth Trends in Kenya
In Kenya, rising C-section births—especially in Nairobi's private hospitals—are transforming childbirth into a costly trend, straining insurers and raising urgent questions for healthcare policy.
Cities & People ·
More Boreholes, But Is the Water Safe?
Data from the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation shows that Kenya increased the number of boreholes drilled from 20,409 in 2020/21 to a projected 47,199 in 2024/25 — a 131% increase
Energy & Climate ·
One in four cars sold in 2025 was electric ⚡
Electric cars are no longer a niche bet on the future. In 2025, one in four new cars sold worldwide was electric, but the shift is moving at very different speeds — from Norway's near-total EV takeover to America's slower 10% adoption rate.
Energy & Climate ·
Mapped the World's Worst Oil Tanker Spills🛢️
The map above tells the story of the largest oil tanker spills since 1967, plotting where they occurred and how massive they were. Some became infamous environmental disasters; others happened far offshore and faded quietly into maritime history.
Energy & Climate ·
The Economics of Drone Warfare 🛰️💰
War is expensive, dominated by fighter jets, tanks, and missiles worth millions. Today, a new weapon is rewriting the battlefield's cost equation: the low-cost attack drone.
Politics ·
🧨 Africa's Debt Trap: When Interest Becomes the Budget - Kenya
Debt has always worn a suit of irony—designed to bring growth, it often ends up choking the very system it sought to elevate. A recent UNCTAD report has put it plainly: Africa's most vulnerable economies are not just paying interest—they're bleeding revenue into it.
Economy ·
Not Born on the Street
Everyone assumes Kenya's street population was born into it. The country's first census of street families says the opposite — and traces exactly where they came from, and why they left.
Cities & People ·
Bread, Borrowed
Kenya's wheat fields produced less in 2025 than in any year since 2021. Almost nobody at the bakery noticed — and the numbers explain exactly why.
Economy ·
Priced Out
The world's poorest countries spend $116 a year keeping each person alive. That is not a smaller version of what rich countries do — it is a different order of problem entirely.
Development ·
Won the Map, Lost the Vote
Raila Odinga carried 13 of Kenya's 20 most populous counties in 2022, and out-polled Ruto in those 20 counties combined by nearly a million votes. He still lost the presidency — because Kenya has 47 counties, not 20.
Politics ·
Kenya's Cybercrime Problem Has a Single Cause
The headline number suggests an epidemic spreading on every front. The Economic Survey's own tables say otherwise — one category of attack now accounts for almost the entire picture, and has done so for three of the last four years.
Technology ·