Analysis · 22 April 2026
The aid reset and what it means for MERL
Donors are doing less, differently. Budgets are tightening just as climate shocks, protracted crises, and geopolitical fragmentation intensify. Most MERL systems were not built for this.
The global aid system is undergoing what senior UN leaders call a "humanitarian reset" — a fundamental reconfiguration in response to shrinking budgets, rising needs, and a crisis of legitimacy and trust. Less money, more crises. No return to the pre-2015 aid model. Pressure to simplify and re-wire delivery chains.
MERL and TPM now face a triple mandate: deliver more, faster; localise leadership and capacity; digitise and de-risk. Yet the business model and institutional incentives around MERL have barely changed. International firms still dominate larger contracts. Local researchers are often engaged at the bottom of the value chain. Tools and datasets remain project-bound and siloed.
This is the space MERLx is designed for: AI-augmented analytical infrastructure that helps teams read context faster and adapt programming earlier, with locally anchored partners at the centre of analysis and interpretation rather than at the bottom of the value chain.
For donor and INGO programme teams, the practical question is no longer "can we add AI to MERL?" — it is "which MERL functions can be re-architected so that signals arrive in time to change the next decision?". That is the bar we hold ourselves to.