Looking Ahead: A Vision for 2026

By Lisa Coll, Eurasia Foundation President

As 2025 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on a year marked by both progress and profound challenges. Our work this year has reinforced what I’ve always known: that even in the most difficult circumstances, local communities possess remarkable capacity to drive meaningful change. As we look toward 2026, this conviction guides our vision for the year ahead.

Despite deep funding cuts in 2025, Eurasia Foundation remains firmly committed to standing with Ukraine. In April, we launched the Digitalisation for Growth, Integrity and Transparency Project (UK DIGIT), building on our past work helping Ukraine combat corruption through digital tools that deliver government services transparently. This project is possible thanks to the generous support of UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

We’re also proud to have launched Scaling Diia Globally, a partnership with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. This initiative showcases Ukraine’s groundbreaking Diia app – which delivers government-issued IDs and public services to millions of citizens amid a war – as a model for digital government services worldwide, helping other countries adapt Ukraine’s innovations to their own challenges.

The courage of our Ukrainian colleagues continues to humble me. They’re not simply enduring—they’re building systems and institutions that will serve their country for generations while sharing their innovations with the world. We’re honored to stand with them.

I won’t pretend that 2026 will not present significant challenges. The global landscape for international development work is shifting. Funding priorities are changing. Geopolitical tensions affect the regions where we work. These realities demand that we be strategic, nimble, and deeply attentive to the needs of our partners on the ground.

This moment also calls us to reaffirm why this work matters. At Eurasia Foundation, we know that foreign assistance makes Americans safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Accountable governance, transparent institutions, and capable local partners aren’t abstract concepts. They’re the foundation of stable regions that don’t require costly American interventions down the line. The work we’ve done around the world directly advances American security and economic interests by building self-reliant partners and reducing the conditions that breed instability.

To everyone who has supported Eurasia Foundation this year – our donors, partners, and the countless individuals across the regions where we work – thank you. Your investment in locally led development makes everything we do possible.

Here’s to 2026, and to the work ahead.