Doing Development Differently: Lessons from BRAC on Local Leadership and Global Scale

Foreign aid is declining amid overlapping global crises, placing significant pressure on the development sector. Rather than retreat or preserve approaches that no longer meet the moment, development leaders must rethink how change is funded and delivered, with greater emphasis on local leadership, strong systems, and collaboration rooted in the realities of the Global South.

The King Center on Global Development welcomes Asif Saleh, Executive Director of BRAC, one of the world’s largest development organizations, for a conversation on how global development is evolving with aid and philanthropy. Drawing on BRAC’s experience, Saleh will offer a practical, grounded perspective on how the sector can do development differently: shifting power closer to communities, building durable local capacity, and advancing solutions that can continue to deliver impact amid a changing aid landscape.

Dinner will be served.

About the speaker:

Asif Saleh is the executive director of BRAC, bringing leadership experience across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors with a track record of scaling development programs and building partnerships. He previously led strategy and communications at BRAC, spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs concluding as an executive director, worked as a policy specialist for UNDP Bangladesh, and led policy efforts on affordable broadband expansion and m-governance strategy as part of the Bangladesh Government’s national digital transformation initiative. Most recently, he was named to the 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy list.